Nah. South Mountain is pretty tame. The trails are definitely desert like but you won't need sticks or heavy pack. Just bring lots of water, common sense, good map of the park trails, you can get by with running shoes. You'll see lots of cyclists, (road & mtn) and trail runners.

Snakes are still down for a few more weeks I think. I haven't seen any in the other desert areas yet. Still too cold in the mornings for them to be moving around much.

Probably some good geocaching there but I haven't looked at that area for that yet.