January 18, 2025
Santa Cruz OAB / Silverbell Lake
Today we’re riding north along the west side of the Santa Cruz River, the base for rides up Oro Valley and north to El Rio. It’s the last of the three primary. routes Rachael takes to get to the Loop, and we’re testing it out together from a security perspective. And like the other two, it feels perfectly safe. Julian Wash, Rillito Wash and now then Santa Cruz seem just fine. She can bike any of her normal routes she takes on her own.
There are a few others I want to test out, including the east side of Santa Cruz with its problematic underpasses beneath Broadway and Grant, each of which have been uncomfortable enough that we just avoid this side until we’re further north of town. The issue with the underpasses is that they’re like ones in Portland - homelessness magnets, littered with trash, and half filled with campers living down there and then sitting around with their legs covering half the width of the path.
| Heart | 5 | Comment | 2 | Link |
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 3 | Link |
2 weeks ago
The Loop follows the edge of these washes, and along the way you’re constantly crossing bridges, most of them constructed of attractive weathering steel like this one, as it carries you across another minor wash feeding into the rivers. I should count them sometime. And then there are the more significant bridges that carry you across the rivers themselves, or closer in town across arterials, highways and railroad tracks: like the rattlesnake, Aviation and Palo Verde brepidges from a few days back.
I’ll bet there are between twenty and thirty of these bridges on the primary 50 mile loop, not counting its tangents that add another fifty miles of paved cycleway.
2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago
Sound track: Fall Our, by Gerry Mulligan and Paul Desmond
The ride is a scenic but simple OAB, with not even a single photo stop in either direction. We go north just far enough for Rachael ro get her target miles for the day in and then we backtrack. And like the REI ride two days ago, I stop off at another birding spot toward the end while she continues the last few miles to home.
Today I stop to check out Silverbell Lake, a place I’m certain will turn up something new. Today though it’s Sunday afternoon and the place is crawling with happy folks: fishermen, kids feeding the ducks, family picnics, the works. It’s not a promising day for hunting for more secretive birds like the night heron that I know lives over here, so I take the win and head home with a plan to return soon on some weekday morning.
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Rachael’s eating leftovers tonight so I’m off for another quest run. Today I test out probably the closest one at hand, Time Market. It’s just five blocks east of here, and right next to the closest streetcar stop. And tonight it gets my highest five star review. The place has everything going for it: conveniently close, an excellent selection of food options including pizza by the slice with a rotating special; in the background some of my favorite music is playing on a fifties jazz playlist that includes Getz, Desmond & Mulligan, Coltrane, and early Miles Davis. And they don’t just have a nonalcoholic beer, they have seven to choose from. We’ll be here seven weeks, and I think a plan is forming.
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 2 | Link |
1 week ago
1 week ago
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Today's ride: 21 miles (34 km)
Total: 99 miles (159 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 9 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |
2 weeks ago
2 weeks ago