For the past three months a dozen or so volunteers have been scratching a trail across the McDowell Mountains to enhance the hiking experience in the Fountain Hills McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

In November the town Council approved the plan for the East Sonoran Trail Loop to stretch about two miles parallel to the Sonoran Trail above the Eagles Nest subdivision.

Almost immediately Bill Craig, lead trailblazer for the Sonoran Conservancy of Fountain Hills, rounded up the volunteers and gathered the equipment needed to build the trail.

Each weekend since mid-December the team of volunteers has been on the side of the hillside swinging picks, wrestling rocks and raking out a smooth trail.

Craig said he believes they will complete the final third of the first mile by the end of this winter season, with the remainder to be finished beginning next fall and through the winter.

The original plan for the new trail was to create a series of two “spurs” between the Sonoran Trail and the new East Sonoran Loop. This would create a system of “stacked” trails, allowing hikers to use different loops to create new experiences on the same trails.

However, Craig said that now that they have started working he believes the steep terrain will only allow them to complete one spur to connect the trails, limiting the stacking effect.

The trail construction is very systematic. A lead person moves ahead along the path laid out by Craig, marked by ribbons in trees and flags, and cuts branches that are in the path of the trail.

Following the trimmer are a couple of people swinging picks to create a flat pathway to be refined by those following with McLeod tools and rakes.

Craig says others seem to enjoy the work of collecting rocks to build retaining areas for the trail or build-up areas to cross washes.

In at least one instance an attempt to move what looked like a relatively manageable rock from the trail turned out to be an “iceberg,” Craig said. The rock proved too large to remove, but they were able to move it enough to allow the trail to pass.

The trail will extend about two miles from the Sonoran Trail at the town’s northwest boundary and reconnect with the same trail just north of its intersection with the Promenade Trail.

The trail runs along the face of the McDowells between the Sonoran Trail above and the boundary with private property in the Eagles Nest neighborhood. There is a minimum 300-foot buffer between the trail and the subdivision boundary.

The trail plan approved by the council includes stipulations designed to address issues raised by neighbors in a meeting prior to the approval. Those measures include:

*Move the trail back from the property lines to 300 feet rather than the originally proposed 200 feet.

*Provide barriers at the current Jeep road points being used by vehicles for access, including off-road vehicles (ORVs).

*Install signs at these areas to notify people that they are trespassing beyond that point.

*Place additional signs at key points along the trail near Eagles Nest that trespassing is illegal and punishable by law enforcement.

*Build the proposed trail at a width of just two feet to discourage the use of ORVs.

Craig believes the current timetable for the trail construction will have it completed either before or about the same time as the planned Preserve Trailhead is completed.

Construction on that trailhead is slated to begin later this year.