Maricopa Trail: Scottsdale-Granite Reef-Mesa and Filling Blanks

Finally, the second installment:  this one covers most of the Scottsdale-Granite Reef-Mesa map (for which I'm now embedding links in the appropriate posts), though the Prelude post has more of it, and I still need to do the bit from Granite Reef at Bush Highway-Power Road to Usery Mountain Park (that will be added when the weather cools).

The two maps above show my routes on April 9, 2021 when I finally rode again the section of the South Canal from its intersection with the Eastern Canal at McDowell Road to the intersection point with the Consolidated Canal, and a new (to me) section from Hayden Road to the Mesa Landfill (on tribal land near SR 87).   Both of these routes were done with Chris; if I can ever get my action cam to work right, I'll have pictures and video, which I'll post. 

The top section is one that I've done before in the Mesa Canals series (posts 7 and 12), but it was good to do again.  The The South Canal is the north side of the fork intersection with the Consolidated Canal, and immediately goes down a steep slope.  Once down the slope, there is an underpass at Gilbert Road, before the canal grade goes through Lehi.  There's a surface crossing at McKellips Road, as there is again at Horne street (watch the traffic).  The trail skirts Mesa's Park of the Canals, before connecting with the Consolidated Canal just north of Brown Road.

The bottom map is a ride done May 31, 2021.  Most of this stretch is over the Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, and skirts farm fields, where we saw much wildlife, including a rattlesnake and some burrowing owls.  As with the South Canal stretch between McDowell and Granite Reef, this route feels like the country, though roads cross and there are other travelers (including riders of gravel bikes, who are apparently using the Maricopa Trail as a shortcut from Scottsdale to SR 87 (the Beeline Highway).  We stopped just before riding past the landfill, which was not aesthetically pleasing.  According to the map, the Arizona Canal skirts the northern edge of the landfill before curving back down to a surface crossing (!) of the Beeline Highway.  See the Prelude post for the Maricopa Trail section southeast of the Beeline.

So, this fills in one blank of this section (the big curve to the Consolidated Canal).  The next blank is the trail (near Hawes Loop) that leads to Usery Mountain Park.