We've got she-assist!

November 29, 2021

Doing the Tucson Loop

Today's ride was going to be a long one as we had decided to do the Tucson Loop. This is a bike route that links several trails throughout the area. It's a very popular ride. So after breakfast, Don emptied out the bed of the truck and loaded Garfield for one last hurrah in Tucson.

We had picked the Rillito Regional Park as a good spot to start our ride since we knew there was a bathroom there and large parking lot. Hopefully it would be a safe location with no bums hanging around.

The park was about 30 minutes away from Catalina SP and we managed to get on the trail by 10:00. Not the best time to start this long of a ride, but it was the best we could do.

It was another beautiful sunny day as we we headed south on the Rillito River trail. Maybe in the 60's to start, but it quickly warmed up into the 80's. Lots of other cyclists were out enjoying the weather.

Don had decided to do the loop clockwise so we could get most of the climbing done at the beginning of the ride. Going this direction was a gradual climb but we also had a light headwind. Not bad, but it was noticable.

Things were going well as we pedaled along, enjoying the views. That lasted until we abruptly hit a dead end on the trail as it came to an underpass.

We could see the trail on the other side of the wash. Annoyed, we had to backtrack until we could get up to the road and cross the bridge to the opposite side. Back to smooth sailing again for awhile.

After what seemed like a long ways, we crossed over to the other side and finally reached the Pantaro Wash trail which took us to a trail along Harrison Rd. Now we were headed west so the wind was more of a quartering crosswind that felt stronger since there were no homes to the south of us to block it.

This part of the trail connection was noisy from the traffic on the road next to us and we had several street crossings rather than the underpasses on the other trails. We sure appreciate those!

For awhile we couldn't figure out why there was a chain link fence on one side of the trail that had razor wire on the top. Hmmmm. There was only open desert that we could see.

But signs warning us that this was a firing range and part of the Davis Monthan Air Force Base soon explained the mystery. Ok, yesterday we passed the air park with planes using the roads as taxi ways and now a firing range! Always something interesting to see on these rides.

This trail was nice until it dumped us onto a deteriorating bike lane on Rita Road. It was another crappy, cracked road with glass in the bike lane and plenty of traffic.

I was very happy when we finally got to the Julian Wash trail and could turn off onto a quiet path. Now we were headed north, downhill and with a tailwind. Yea, this was nice!! We fairly flew along on this newer smooth pavement.

So far this is the first of the trails we've been on today that we had actually biked on a previous ride. There were even familiar landmarks.

The Julian Wash trail is one of the latest additions to the Loop and this part of Tucson was a mix of some newer homes and lots of industry. Since we had dropped several hundred feet in elevation we had left the saguaros, ocotillo and cholla behind, and were back to mostly sparse creosote desert. Not as pleasant to look at for sure!

But I wasn't looking forward to the connections I knew we had to make to access the Santa Cruz River trail. We were working with an older bike route paper map that I had saved from previous trips and not an updated route shown online (Don didn't have time to look at that before we left, oops, that might have helped).

Well, it ended up being just as bad I had figured it would be!

When the Julian Wash trail ended, we were forced to jig and jog around from road to road, some of it on sidewalk, trying to find our way under the interstates. We sort of knew where the river was located, but surely there was a better way!

Trying to do this type of navigation with a VERY long tandem is quite challenging for Don. Plus we had to keep clipping in and out as we crossed the busy roads. I could feel my sprained ankle starting to protest all of the twisting.

At one point we ended up on some sort of greenway trail that was near downtown. It was following a former rail line - the El Paso and Southwestern I believe, but we didn't take or have time to read any of the info signs since we still had a long way to go to get back to our start.

Finally after one more turn, Don was able to get us onto the Santa Cruz River trail. YEA!!!!! Whew, we figured it would be smooth sailing from here. Little did we know!

We continued to speed along at a good clip with the wind behind us. Other than some bathroom breaks, we really hadn't stopped at all on the entire ride. I even ate my protein bar as we rode. This sure wasn't a leisurely ride!

But I wondered where all of the riders were? We really hadn't encountered very many people since the Rillito Wash trail. Don thought it was probably because it was later in the afternoon. But it sure was a trike day! I lost tract of how many trikes had passed us. Not any other recumbents, though.

We've found that the trails in Tucson have been pretty well signed with turns indicated along with mileage markers. But they could be better at times with some of the weird connections. A sign with an actual map on it would have also helped.

We were really starting to get tired now. It was already after 3 pm and we didn't know how far it was to get back to the truck. We hoped we could finish this ride before dark!

Eventually the signs finally gave the mileage to Rillito Park where we would be making one last change to the Rillito River trail. That was good to see, but the trail designers had one more confusing intersection to throw at us.

We came up upon an underpass and could see that we would have to somehow get to the other side of wash. Luckily there was another rider here and he had us follow him onto the bike route that went up on a bridge on the road.

But we still had one more trail fork to figure out. Boy, this sure was frustrating!

We got our map out but the rider noticed our head scratching and came back to help. However when we told him we wanted the Rillito River trail, he came up blank. It appeared that he had never ridden that one, even though he said he rode every day. That was weird - just going up and down the Santa Cruz would be boring!

As we were saying goodby, Don commented about the biker's e-assist bike and that we couldn't go as fast as he could. The guy said we have 'she-assist'! That had to have been the best thing I've heard about tandeming and sure perked me up!!

Back on the correct route, we easily found the Rillito River trail and turned south one more time.

The uphill wasn't too bad even though our legs were getting very tired. Maybe the fact that we knew the truck wasn't too far away helped! Even the headwind had lessened by this late hour. It was 4:00 by now and I knew that we'd be lucky to finish this marathon ride by 5.

The trail was nearly deserted and I barely remembered what we saw along the way. We thought we could easily take the trail back to the parking lot at Rillito Park when Tucson had to throw in one more hiccup to challenge us.

The trail we were following was on the west side of the wash, although we could see another one on the east side. I knew there was a pedestrian bridge at the park that would get us to the correct side at that point, so figured it didn't matter what side we were on now.

Hah! That clearly wasn't going to work when we got to an underpass and the paved trail suddenly turned to gravel. Oh for crap's sake!!!!! Now we had to get to the other side of the wash.

There didn't seem to be any other way to do that except to follow the trail up to the bridge above us and take the road to the other side. Sigh.....

Resigned, we got off the bike and trudged up the bank of the wash to the highway where we saw no bike lane. Now we were forced to walk the narrow sidewalk on the bridge itself. Don pushed the bike, while I followed behind him.

We had gotten to about halfway and a point of no return, when I could see a guy walking toward us - PUSHING A WALKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The wheels of his walker took up the entire sidewalk.

I had no idea how this would play out. It's not like we could back the tandem up!

Don just kept pushing the bike and the other guy kept heading straight for us. The sidewalk wasn't wide enough for us to both of us, so clearly someone was going to have to get off onto the street which had a tiny shoulder.

When we got to an impasse, I was surprised to see the guy get off of the curb and continue pushing his walker in the street. Ok, that worked but I worried that he would get hit by a car. As we passed each other, I could hear him muttering under his breath and saw him giving us nasty looks. Hey, buddy, thanks for making room for us but don't blame us - blame Tucson's poor road design!

When we safely reached the other side of the wash, we could see the trail beneath us, but there wasn't any access point to get to it. Oh boy...such fun we were having today!

I knew that River Road was just ahead of us at the intersection, so we got on the road and turned south again, this time in a decent bike lane. Traffic was quite busy as it was now rush hour but we just pedaled along, looking for an access point to the trail.

We never did that, but after a few blocks, came to the road that we knew would take us to the entrance to the park since we had driven it previously. Don made one final turn and we soon found ourselves back in the parking lot. Yeah, we had made it!!

I was happy to see our truck sitting there safe and sound. You just never know, what with all of the bums/homeless hanging around many of the parks.

But we were both exhausted by now and barely had the energy to change out of our bike shoes. It was 4:30 pm but at least it was still light out. I did a few stretches for my legs while Don loaded the bike. Then we hopped in and headed to camp.

Boy, what a day! Who's idea was this crazy ride?!! I think I would have been happy to have just done 40 miles.

We had just completed a little over 56 miles with an average speed of 11 mph which is not shabby for us considering that included lots of starts and stops with a little walking. But we also hadn't stopped for very long at any point. It was the longest ride we'd done in 2 years.

It took about 30 minutes to get back home where Don put together a quick microwave dinner since he had no energy to grill. We were both famished, even though we had had food during the ride.

But protein bars, nuts and pretzels were not enough calories for this long of a ride. I had also had a banana and apple but could have eaten a lot more. Had we been touring, at this distance we would have left much earlier in the morning and taken a sit down lunch somewhere to relax and refuel.

I also should have brought one more bottle of Powerade with us. We only had one which I let Don drink since he didn't have a water bottle. I had my Camebak bladder in my seat so had plenty of water.

After dinner, Don worked for awhile breaking down camp since we're moving on tomorrow. Then we watched a little TV and crashed early. We were both tired and our bodies still felt like they were still moving on the bike. But it had been a good ride, one we wouldn't have been strong enough to do 3 months ago. We'll see how we feel tomorrow!

We parked at the Rillito Regional Park which is also the home of the Rillito Horse Racing Park - a historic racetrack and the birthplace of modern, formalized Quarter Horse racing. Other advancements included the introduction of the photo finish and the straightaway "chute system", a standard for Quarter Horse racing today. It's been a Quarter Horse venue since 1943 with thoroughbred racing brought to the track in 1953. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A foundation is working to rebuild the barns before the next racing season starts in February.

An interesting cactus that we saw along the trail today. It grows as a mat. I couldn't quite figure it out since it doesn't match any in my book.

Along the Pantano Wash trail we encountered a large section of memorial trees that were planted by families for a deceased loved one. Many had elaborate decorations and benches with ornaments on the trees. All had a metal sign that had a number on it along with a Native American Indian design designating what memorial garden it was part of - like the Garden of the Flute Player for the Kokopeli figure. The number corresponded with the person's name.

Along the Harrison Road trail we found that we were next to a firing range for the air force base.

The Julian Wash trail is one of the newest sections of the Loop bike route. Nice smooth pavement but it was nearly deserted today since it's a long way away from the main part of the city.

We'd seen a lot of standard tadpole trikes today, but this delta trike had the addition of training wheels! Was this lady afraid of falling over??!! It also had e-assist.

There were many nice tile designs on the entrances and exits of the bridges on the Rillito River trail. I think this was wishful thinking with these fish since there is no water in this "river"! It's a dry wash like all of the ones we've biked along in Tucson.

When we encountered this guy with a walker on the last bridge crossing, I wondered who was going to give way first - Don or the guy. Clearly the sidewalk wasn't going to be wide of enough for both of us to be side by side. It ended up being the guy, but he wasn't happy about it. Sorry!

After all of the poor connections, starts and stops of the trails today, I was ready to throw some axes at whoever designed Tucson's Loop!!

Today's ride: 56 miles (90 km)
Total: 56 miles (90 km)

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Comment on this entry	Comment	6

Kelly IniguezI will give ridewithgps a plug here - I tend to get lost on a good day. I love the spoken voice cues. There are all sorts of apps - Strava, Komoot, ridewithgps, etc. Komoot has the added feature of being able to set your depart time, and see the wind/temperature on a sliding scale as the day progresses.

Thanks for the great report - I felt i was riding with you!
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2 years ago

marilyn swettTo Kelly IniguezWe don't use a phone to navigate with - just an older garmin which we wouldn't have used here on the trails. And that's just been used lately for just speed/time. When on a true tour we might use it in larger cities to get to a hotel. But I know from reading other journals that there are lots of those other apps that people use for navigating. How does that work if you have poor cell coverage and would you worry about using up your battery?
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2 years ago

Rich FrasierTo marilyn swettHi Marilyn - I don’t claim to be an expert but we really like our Wahoo ELEMNT Roam for navigating. It connects to RidewithGPS automatically, so I do the routes on RidewithGPS in advance. The Wahoo device does all the navigating so your phone stays in your pocket and you don’t use your phone battery. The Wahoo will run for about 8 hours on a full charge. No voice cues, though. So Kelly’s solution is worth looking at, too.
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2 years ago

Kelly IniguezTo marilyn swettMy phone is old and doesn’t have a good battery. I carry a battery pack to supplement.

I make my routes in advance and download them, no worry about cell service.

I stress about getting lost, having ridewithgps takes the stress away. I like fun cycling!
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2 years ago

marilyn swettTo Rich FrasierThanks for that tip Rich. I've never heard of that one. Frankly, about the only time we get turned around is when using bike trails in a city! Usually on the open roads on a tour, we have ACA maps as well as a state highway map.
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2 years ago

marilyn swettTo Kelly IniguezSounds like a lot of work ahead of a ride, Kelly. Not something Don would care to do. My phone is usually packed away or even turned off when on a tour.
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2 years ago