Hitting the Road to Saddlebrook

January 2, 2021

This orange tree had branches extending over a wall by the road. I thought I would pick one but I couldn't get it off the tree! Plus the fruit was so hard that it felt like a rock. Obviously not ripe yet.

I liked this cluster of Fishhook Barrel cactus with some Santa Rita prickly pear behind it.

The Saddlebrook subdivision is located at the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains.

Our wildlife sighting today was this coyote loping across the road in front of us.

Some interesting inflatable Christmas decorations at this home. I liked the rocket ship!

At the north end our loop we encountered this very steep hill. We opted to walk up rather than ride.

We waited again until nearly 11:00 for it to warm up enough to ride. It was nice and sunny though as we headed north on Inovation Rd until it connected to Highway 77.

It was a continuously climb but there was little traffic on Inovation Rd, although we did have a flat which was on the front tire for a change. Don said the tread on the tire was very worn so he'll change it for a new one later.

Once on 77, the climbing continued. This was a busy 4-lane divided road but there was a wide shoulder. We kept going north through open desert, past some homes and several churches.

At Wilds Rd we turned east and took that into a subdivision until we saw a really steep downhill ahead of us. We weren't sure what was at the bottom, and Don stated that he didn't want to turn around and come back up this hill. I had no problems with that reasoning!

We went back the way we came for a few blocks until we could go north again through a nice housing development . Eventually the neighborhood changed to older homes on large lots with plenty of horses and a few dogs - none that were loose.

We continued meandering through the homes on different streets. One section had all of their roads named usuing nautical terms like forecastle, captain and hawser. That was kind of interesting to see out here where there is no water for miles!

A coyote trotted across in front of us at one point and a large peloton of road riders zoomed past in another. Most of the time there was no shoulder and the pavement was a bit rough at times. But the traffic was light.

When we neared the upscale Saddlebrook development, we encountered a steep hill that we had to walk up. We could have ridden more through this area, but the hills looked liked they continued if we kept going north, so we opted to return back to Highway 77 and go back to camp. There were sure lots of new shopping centers and homes being built out here.

It had been a nice ride, a bit different than our other rides. And for once, it had been fairly warm out!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and bird watching. As it got dark we called it a day, and went back in the trailer for the usual dinner and movies.

Today's ride: 22 miles (35 km)
Total: 359 miles (578 km)

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