Julian Wash: Beyond Rita Road

January 2, 2021

Another day, more blue sky, another 42 miles on the Loop. Yawn. We’re on the Loop again today partly because Rachael’s toe is still bothering her and she wants to keep the flexibility to bike at her own pace or just turn back if it bothers her too much; and partly because it’s still the holiday weekend and we want to save some of the road rides we have in mind for quieter days.

Still, a very nice day. You could pretty happily ride the Loop every day, I’m sure, and we’re nowhere near bored by it yet. And Rachael’s foot didn’t trouble her enough to slow her down, big surprise. And, we found a new part of the Loop network that we didn’t even know existed before now!

At its south end, the loop follows Julian Wash upstream from The Santa Cruz for fifteen miles until reaching Rita Road. From there it turns north to connect with the Harrison Greenway. Before today though, I’d never noticed that the bikeway continues further southeast along Julian Wash beyond Rita Road for at least a couple of miles. Rachael knew, because she followed it for a short distance on our first ride here this winter (adding just enough to round her ride up to 42 miles, of course), but I hadn’t understood where she had gone when she explained it to me later.

This new stretch is lovely. The pavement is unblemished and must be very new, and passes through a flat, open expanse of creosote, ocotillo and jumping cholla. We rode it for about two miles before turning back, but it continued on. We’ll have to return and ride it to its end and report back, because we can’t tell how far it goes yet: it’s not shown on any map that we’ve seen.

Undaunted, the intrepid Rocky leads the team through the maw of the rattlesnake.

This is on the newest section of Julian Wash Greenway, the extension beyond Rita Road. It extends for at least 2-1/2 more miles, as far as Houghton Road. We didn’t bike far enough to see if it continued beyond that. It doesn’t show up yet on any map or satellite view that I’ve seen.

Lunch break, Julian Wash. The eastern end of this trail has some of our favorite miles of the whole system. Open, quiet, with well spaced spots like this to stop and smell the creosote (or so I imagine - does creosote have a distinctive smell? It just sounds like it must).

I really like the perspective you get of the Tucson Mountains here, with those dragon-tooth peaks rising above the desert.

Our polygon for the day: a stylish, stilted rectangle.

Another quadrilateral, a poetic trapezoid in weathering steel this time.

At the Kino Environmental Reclamation Project again, where we saw the ring necked duck a few days back. This time, a pair of buffleheads. Such a funny name - makes me think of plush toys.

He’s a bit far off for a good photo, but I like the way the enormous bill of this shoveler duck reflects in the water. It gives a good look at its unusual shape.

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Ride stats today: 42 miles, 1,200’; for the tour: 1,556 miles, 53,300’; for the year: 2 riding days, 84 miles, 2,300’

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