Revising my opinion of the Canada de Oro path.
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We've had a bit of wind the past couple of days, rain wasn't on my radar at all. When I looked out the window this morning, the patio around the pool was wet and the sky was full of dark gray clouds. The weather app on my phone said rain until noon, and then sunny after that. Scott and Rachael are south of us. He said they didn't have any rain at all.
I ate breakfast and then sat around. This is not how I like to do things. I added my raincoat to my pannier and wiped my chain off. I looked outside. There were patches of blue. What the heck, I'm going. I had modified the day's route from 48 miles to 44 miles in concession to the bad weather. I added the vest and ear warmers to my outfit and took off. Jacinto announced it was freezing outside and he wasn't going anywhere. He didn't. I was surprised. He visited the weight room at the motel and went for an hour walk on the path.
I waited so long to go ride that I was hungry again. I ate my apple at mile seven rather than the turn around point. At every bathroom I passed, I looked for a guy wearing a red, black, and white lumber jack plaid coat. Nope. Not today. I passed up several bathrooms until I couldn't stand it. Then I stopped at a very busy one on the Canada de Oro path.
I was quite pleased with my progress to that point. I had successfully routed through all of the previous trouble spots. I'm finally starting to recognized landmarks. Today I rode all the way up the Canada path. There were very few people out to start. I think because of the rain. I was happy my bike has fenders because of the wet pavement.
The Canada is slightly uphill to the north. I had time to look around and enjoy the sights. The mountains are closer here and there's more greenery, but not cacti.
The path was wide the entire distance except for two narrow areas with a rail on one side and a retaining wall on the other. Those two spots are a narrow squeeze with my bike. They weren't a problem today with the low traffic.
I saw one man pulling a dog in a specialty dog trailer. The dog was barking and barking the entire time. That would get old. I saw a few families out for walks. COVID be damned. Speaking of COVID - on the Canada it was notable to me the number of people who did not have masks. I would say 10% of people in this area had masks today. Perhaps they were locals and considered the path 'home' and masks aren't necessary? Down on the main bike path near our motel at River and Campbell, I would guess 70% of the people have masks on and virtually everyone has at least a Buff around their neck ready to pull up. That's what we do. I wonder if the people in our area are more tourists? That's purely speculation on my part.
My legs were quite sore the first 3-4 days of riding. I hadn't bicycled since our Thanksgiving tour. I went from nothing to riding 45-50 miles a day, every day. Happily, my legs are now in the groove and not sore at all the past two days.
My original plan was to ride the entire Loop for Christmas. The rain changed that plan. Somewhere in the next six days, I need to ride it.
I had purchased a used bike via Craigslist here in Tucson. It is a full two feet shorter than my Stratus, a Bacchetta Agio. My thought is to use it as a travel bike. A friend has been storing the bike at her house. Tonight we finally went and picked it up. We visited for a short amount of time, outside. Then Jacinto and I went to IHOP for Christmas dinner. They were very busy, every table was being seated. Jacinto speculated that it was because they had partitions between all of the tables.
Today ended up being a good riding day. The sun came out and I warmed up enough to take off my vest and ear warmers. I hope you enjoyed your Christmas also!
Today's ride: 45 miles (72 km)
Total: 332 miles (534 km)
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Thanks for the Christmas tour description s. Things are certainly different this year aren’t they? Surprised that “Hoss” weenied out😁
Glad your muscles aren’t rebellious about sudden long efforts. Been in the teens here in KC but warmer by noon, so am riding anyway w ith promised sunshine and lite winds.
spoon
4 years ago
4 years ago