March 17, 2023
Oro Valley-Marana Loop
Circling the Canyon of Gold
On a quest to expand our paved riding territory beyond the Loop while minimizing engagement with cars, I've come across some routes by the Greater Arizona Biking Association that loop north around Vistoso in Oro Valley. I don't know what Vistoso is, but all the GABA rides we did last year were on comfortable routes so we'll find out today.
From Christina Taylor Green Park we start riding northeast on the Loop path by Cañada del Oro, a wash named for the Canyon of Gold in the Santa Catalina Mountains where it originates. Normally dry, there's a little water in the wash today. We're pointed straight at the mountains, and after seven miles we leave the bike path and continue east into Santa Catalina State Park. The park road is a low-speed spur up to a trailhead at the foot of the mountains. A wonderful mosaic tile mural depicting the desert and mountain scene stands at the trailhead, a project of the friends of the park organization.
Riding back out of the park to continue north on the Cañada del Oro Loop path, we cross Oracle Road at Oro Valley Marketplace. This intersection is the only uncomfortable part of the ride, just because Oracle is 10 lanes wide here and the light cycle from the park side is so short that it turns red while we're halfway across. Yikes. It would have been worth taking a moment to press the walk light button here to give ourselves more time.
Shortly after the Cañada del Oro path ends, another one picks up next to Innovation Parkway and Rancho Vistoso Boulevard, which is a lightly-traveled road through a beautiful neighborhood. As we continue on Sun City Boulevard to The Views restaurant for lunch we see golf carts and hear the popping of pickleball rackets. The light dawns and we see that Rancho Vistoso is a planned community with a lot of million dollar homes, a golf resort in the center, and money to burn on bike infrastructure. It's certainly a low stress place to ride, on or off the bike path.
I'm not sure this posh looking restaurant in the middle of the golf club will be excited to seat a couple of sweaty cyclists, but the host greets us cheerfully and we have a great lunch on the patio with expansive views of the mountains. Prices are very fair considering how good the food is. My grilled Mahi Mahi with pineapple salsa, asparagus and rice pilaf is a deal at $14.
By now you might wonder where all the pictures are of the scenes on this ride. I've snapped at least 20 photos today with the Lumix camera before I notice the flashing message that says "No SIM card." Nuts. The card must still be plugged into the reader back at the trailer and the pictures are just vapor in our heads. It's a beautiful ride so far; you'll just have to ride it to see.
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On La Cañada Drive another bike path takes us south to Tangerine, a major east-west trafficway with good bike lanes plus its own bike path, lined with wildflowers.
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A surprise awaits us when we get back to the Loop by the Santa Cruz River. We were going to ride north a few miles from Twin Peaks for one more visit to El Rio nature preserve, but the path in that direction is closed for construction. That's a new development since our last ride here in late February. The earth movers have torn up the path around Ina Road too. They've quit for the day and we're able to ride around the heavy equipment on the dirt to get back to the path.
According to the Pima County website, ADOT is building a new bridge over I-10 at Ina Road that will add Loop trail underpasses on both sides of the Santa Cruz River, new bike lanes on Ina Road and other improvements. It'll be a great upgrade when this section reopens sometime in 2025. Hopefully we'll be back to see it then.
By the time we circle around to the Cañada del Oro path and the car, we've ridden maybe 9 out of 41 miles on roads, all with light low-speed traffic. The rest of the ride has been on multi-use paths. We didn't expect to find this much delightful stress-free riding beyond the Loop. I'm calling this route a keeper.
Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 732 miles (1,178 km)
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1 year ago
I go to the journal settings and enter Barry's CycleBlaze username as the second author, then Save. It's worked for me on all three journals now. Good luck with it.
1 year ago
The LUMIX seems to chew through a charged battery much faster than my older Olympus point-and-shoot, although I've learned the hard way to turn off the GPS on the Oly when it's not in use because it seems to remain active even when the camera's powered off.
I bought a charger and two spare batteries for the LUMIX before we went traveling in January and, although I've never needed all three batteries in a single day's shooting, it was good to know I had them.
1 year ago