On a beautiful Saturday morning twenty Trailblazers set out for a trek through Cave Creek Regional Part in northern Maricopa County.

Trailblazers reconvene as Jim verifies our route at the trail junction.

From the Go John trailhead the Overton runs along the paved road for about a hundred yards and then veers north for about two miles, all gently uphill. There it joins the Go John itself, which we followed north to a gate into state trust land. From there, you can hike the Maricopa trail east to Spur Cross or west to Anthem and Lake Pleasant.

While the group assembled at that point, Ajay, Bruce, and Quy decided to form a breakaway and zoom toward their 14-mile finish. Dave and Wayne joined them, since they were fast hikers and wanted to get home early.

The rest of us continued east on the Go John until we reached a scenic promontory that was almost perfect for having a snack break. True, the rocks tended to be sharp and jagged rather than flat and wide but everyone got their break one way or another.

After that the trail stayed rocky for about a mile and a quarter, where we met the Quartz Trail. This is a new trail just put into service in mid-2011. Like all the trails in this area, it was nicely-groomed, hilly enough to be interesting, and not too hilly to be exhausting. As you might expect, white quartz dots the landscape.

Our last mile was on the Slate Trail where, expectedly enough, natural slate is a common sight.

Lunch at El Encanto. [photo by Dave French]

We got back to the trailhead at about 1:00 PM, and found that the group of Ajay, Bruce, Dave, Quy, and Wayne had already started their 6-mile extension. After careful discussion, the rest of us embarked for the El Encanto restaurant at 12th Street and Carefree for a welcome repast, refreshment, and camaraderie.

Bruce told me later that the three 14-mike hikers were finished by 2:00. So while the rest of us did 8 miles in four hours, and those three did 14 miles in five. Good going!

The name Go John, by the way, comes from the G. O. John mine located on or near the property. There’s not much public information on this mine, except that it was an underground operation, it’s primary commodities were copper and silver, and its secondary commodities were gold and lead. Apparently, people still do gold panning there.