The Mission Ride

January 21, 2023

It’s cold again this morning, the coldest morning yet: 29F when we first get up. A sunny, calm day is on tap though, and by eleven it’s warmed up enough for comfort. A great day to ride.

I’m feeling nearly back to full strength and the weather looks fine, so I come up with an ambitious ride plan for the day - an out and back along Mission Road, passing famous San Xavier del Bac Mission and then continuing climbing ten miles past it to the crown of the divide before turning around and coasting back. It’s 46 miles if I go the distance, but I can of course turn back short if I run out of day or legs.

I invite Rachael to join me, but she decides she wants to just ride and opts for another jaunt up Julian Wash to Rita Road. For some reason she suspects my ride won’t end up being quite as arrow-like as I’m suggesting. She could be right.

Before I leave though, I drive over to Fair Wheel Bikes to pick up a pair of Gatorskins and new tubes, and take the time to replace my front tire, the one that flattened yesterday. That’s all the time I’ve got for now though. I’ll replace the back tire earlier.

I’m biking south on the Loop along the Santa Cruz, enjoying seeing some water running down the normally dry wash and keeping my eye out for the coyotes and roadrunners Larry spotted out here a few days ago. It occurs to me that it wouldn’t take much of a detour to wrap in a quick peek at Kennedy Lake to see if there’s anything unusual here today. That’s the thing about birding - birds make for a harder quest than heritage trees as they tend to move around, so you never know what you’ll find from one day to the next. It helps to stop by places like this and Sweetwater multiple times to see what’s new. Who knows? Today might be the day a cinnamon teal stops by.

So I stop and consult the Garmin to see what it will do to the ride plan if I stitch Kennedy Park into it. It fits pretty well, adding about a mile and a half to the ride. Worth it, I decide, since I can always stop short of the summit on Mission Road before turning back.

It’s nothing like what’s flowing down Rillito Wash, but I’ve never seen this much water in the Santa Cruz at the south end of town.

I approach Kennedy Park by the back door, up the short unpaved path above the library. In passing I stop for a closer look at the cluster of large stone blocks standing there, a public art work inspired by the nearby Tucson Mountains that I’ve admired in the past. Thinking of the giant wishbones on the UA campus I just saw yesterday, I wonder if there’s a chance this is another creation by the same artist so I stop to look for an inscription.

At the corner of Mission Road and Ajo Way I stop to admire this sculpture. I’ve stopped for this in the past but looking at it now I wonder if it might not be another public environmental work by Athena Tacha, the artist who created the giant wishbones on the UA campus.

It’s not though. This is Na:nko Ma:s Du’ag Son (Many Colors Mountain), by a team of artists in 1994. I think both works are inspired by the jagged Tucson Mountains though.

I’d say roughly 90% of the waterfowl on the lake are amassed in this corner, with the remainder streaming in as fast as they can fly or paddle.

Disappointingly, there are very few birds in sight when Kennedy Lake first comes into view. I look around though and see a congregation of them on the far shore so I bike over to check it out. When I get there I find a bird magnet drawing in nearly all the birds on the lake - a young woman with a bag of bread, indulging in some cheap Saturday morning entertainment.

I spend several minutes there checking out the scene looking for any oddities, but nothing jumps out. Then I see a pair of smaller birds, not water birds, along the water’s edge in the midst of the hoard. I can’t get a good shot of them and frustratingly they keep dashing back to the cover of a nearby mesquite tree. It takes awhile but finally I get a clear shot. A song sparrow! Such a common bird, but not that common here apparently.

It’s nearly 12:30 when I finally leave Kennedy Park. Rachael was right to go on her own - I’m nearly ninety minutes into the ride with only seven miles to show for it when I finally join Mission Road heading south toward the mission. Something’s going to have to give in today’s plan, obviously.

Once Mission Road crosses Valencia, it leaves Tucson and road conditions immediately deteriorate. The roadway narrows, the shoulder disappears, the surface is coarser and less well maintained. The next two miles until the turnoff to the mission itself are pretty unpleasant, really. I’ve taken this ride several times now and never enjoy this stretch of the ride. The road is narrow, the pavement’s irregular margin ends in sand, and there’s enough traffic - mostly pickups with wide mirrors, it seems today - to make it uncomfortable. Fortunately the traffic all comes by in batches controlled by the stoplight at Valencia, so I just pull off intermittently to let the next queue race by when it comes.

And today, unpleasant as this patch of road always is, it comes with the offsetting attraction of a pair of red tailed hawks, one patiently pole-sitting right beside the road.

We’ve seen this bird before, but it’s always worth stopping for a good look at a red-tailed hawk.

San Xavier del Bac Mission is a renowned place, one of the top tourist draws in the Tucson area. A Jesuit mission founded in 1700, it earns its place on the National Historic Register for its white stucco church built in the Moorish and Byzantine style. It’s a remarkable thing to see out here isolated in the desert, and it must have seemed especially so two hundred years ago when it was completed.

We’ve visited or biked past the mission three or four times before but this is the best time to see it yet, and maybe the best time in decades. It’s nearing the completion of a multi-decade restoration project, is newly whitewashed, and really gleams now. The last time we were here the east eastern tower was still encased in scaffolding, so we’ve never seen it like this.

The other thing that makes this a fine time to visit is the end of Covid restrictions. On the last two times we visited it was still restricted - far fewer visitors were around, and I don’t remember but I think the church was closed. Also, the row of fry bread stands is back in business again, after a couple of years in which their ocotillo frames stood empty. To celebrate, I decide to finally try some fry bread myself, ordering up a plate and taking it to a nearby bench where I sit in the shade of a mesquite, savor my meal, and am delighted to see a few unfamiliar birds around - Brewer’s blackbirds, another second addition to the list today.

Daredevil, on the descent to San Xavier del Bac Mission.

The mission really gleams today after its recent renovation. Last year one of the towers was still wrapped in scaffolding.

The front of the mission is lined with a narrow cactus garden. Many of the plants look especially dramatic with their shadows looking sharp on the white mission wall behind them.

Even without the wall and shadow enhancing it, this long-needled prickly pear looks especially sharp.

Here’s a welcome change. After a two year Covid hiatus the fry bread stands are back in business.

I’ve never tried one of these here, but I’m in no rush and this seems like a good day for it. I like the looks of this one, at the end of the line.

I’d like the green chili, but they’re out of it so I pick red. I’d like cheese, lettuce and tomatoes, but they’re out of tomatoes too so they drop a dollar from the price.

Even without the tomatoes it’s a great feast, a nice change from the usual trail mix. Sloppy though. I have to wrap it in the aluminum foil cover it came with and eat it like a gyro. At the end I let the mendicant dog that’s been keeping watch lick the foil, so we’re both happy.

Mammal #1: round-tailed ground squirrel. It’s not all about the birds, we stop for other wild animals too.

It’s obvious I’m not going to get far out Mission Road at this rate, so I scrap that idea and continue loitering around the mission - checking out the cactus garden, and then pushing the bike up Grotto Hill to enjoy the impressive 360 degree views. Amazingly enough, while I’m there I look below and see a hawk gliding low above the ground. With that behavior it has to be a harrier I’m thinking, and I’m lucky enough to get off a few blurry shots before he glides into the trees and disappears.

Grotto Hill, the sacred site just southeast of the mission. The crown is closed to the public, but the perimeter trail halfway up is open and provides exceptional views in all directions.

At least six mountain ranges are visible from Grotto Hill. This is the view to the west.

And the view to the north, giving a dramatic look at the south end of the Tucson Mountains.

And if you’re really lucky, you can look down and see a harrier gliding low above the field before it disappears into the trees. #51: Northern harrier.

It’s after two now and I don’t see much point in biking further out Mission Road just to pack in a few more miles. I’ve come out of the day with much more than I bargained for already so I just head for home, taking the long way around and swinging east near the airport. I want to get home and cull through the photos to confirm my bird sightings, and I especially don’t want to be late and risk keeping Rocky from our 5:45 dinner reservation at Kingfisher Grill.

Rachael returns home about a half hour later, as I knew she would because I’ve been tracking her position on the Garmin. She returns with news - another roadrunner sighting of course, because she always seems to find roadrunners. But that’s not the big news. Biking out Julian Wash she encountered Kelly again, biking westbound toward town. And while they’re stopped and gassing in the desert, Larry and his wife bike up as well. Another amazing coincidence.

Later, she and Kelly cross paths once more going in the other direction as they’re each heading back home. And still later we have our first proper, prolonged visit with Ms. Iniguez when she joins us for dinner. What a great day!

Leaving the mission through its back door. Rather than biking back along busy Mission Road again I followed San Xavier back to the south end of town and made a loop of it.

Kelly again! And Larry and his wife, back in town again with a friend from their campground along. How unlikely to encounter them both at the same time.

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Ride stats today: 27 miles, 700’; for the tour: 1,154 miles, 40,400’

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2023 Bird List

49. Song sparrow

50. Brewer’s blackbird

51. Northern harrier

Today's ride: 27 miles (43 km)
Total: 1,154 miles (1,857 km)

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