For today's hike, I took Banning Creek Trail #81 to Goldwater Lake Trail #396 and went West to the White Spar Campground. This route has less shade then the route towards Goldwater lake, but it is a very pretty and not too difficult hike. The one drawback of this trail is that it is heavily used by bikers, so make sure that you are on the look out and can jump out of the way in case they don't announce themselves.
I got out my Garmin Forerunner 205 today so I could get more accurate data on the hike. Let me take a minute to talk about how I am impressed with this GPS device. I have had the Garmin 205 for over 10 years and have been nothing but please with the accuracy and reliability of the device. Here is the data for the hike.
I got out my Garmin Forerunner 205 today so I could get more accurate data on the hike. Let me take a minute to talk about how I am impressed with this GPS device. I have had the Garmin 205 for over 10 years and have been nothing but please with the accuracy and reliability of the device. Here is the data for the hike.
The distance for this hike was 5 1/2 miles total round trip from my house and was completed in 2 hours, which is a 3 mph pace. When you get to the highest peak near the campground you will be able to see Quartz Mountain and Wolverton Mountain in the distance. There is also a makeshift memorial here for the Granite Mountain hotshots who died in the wildfire almost 3 years ago.
In the past couple years, there is the addition of some great trail signs with direction and mileage information - nice!
In the past couple years, there is the addition of some great trail signs with direction and mileage information - nice!
This hike rates 4 boots on a scale of 5 mostly due to the biking activity.