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From the beginning, I thought of the crossing of the valley as an east to west walk. I suppose this was a result of the talks with Steve Garufi we always discussed the walk in those directions. Of course, he had crossed it from west to east on his bike ride across America. Ironically, it took him almost 4 days as his bike ended up getting stolen while here!

It was decided the best area to begin was Fountain Hills as this provided some of the best?scenery. From there areas were discussed as those we thought would be interesting to see. Scottsdale, Tempe, Downtown, Phoenix North Mountain Preserve, the Arizona Canal, Westgate, finally ending somewhere on the valley’s west side.

We decided to drive potential routes. Using Google maps, I started getting an idea of suggested routes and distances. We picked a Saturday and met at the Dutch Bros coffee stand on Scottsdale and McDowell Roads. Dave drove and we headed over to Fountain Hills. Finding the starting point was the easiest decision of determining the route. We chose the corner of Shea and North Palisades where there was a nice fountain and welcome to the suburb. It was also a high point on what seemed like an end point for the east valley.

I should note another one of the first arguments occurred here when I told Dave to park along side of Shea so we could get a picture of ourselves. There was clearly a pull-out for people to stop and enjoy the fountain. Both Dave and Chrystyna were adamant that we not park the truck there. It was a sign of numerous future debates, most sharing the commonality of me being right, they incorrect.

Anyway, we ended up spending the entire day in the truck exploring the route options. It was time well spent as probably most significant was the realization the taking of Grand Avenue all the way north and west was not the most appealing way to finish the journey.

From our drive, we roughed out the following thoughts of what our valley walk would look like:

Day 1 – Fountain Hills to Old Town Scottsdale

Day 2 – Old Town Scottsdale to Downtown Phoenix

Day 3 – Downtown Phoenix to Westgate

Day 4 – Westgate to Luke Air Force Base

Here’s the picture from this day taken at the Fountain Hills starting point:

Next: Day One