Day 3 - East Saguaro National Park - PedalPushin 2024

February 9, 2024

Day 3 - East Saguaro National Park

Harrison Greenway heading north towards East Saguaro National Park

It’s only been 3 days here and we are getting very used to blue skies and amazing cycling. Soon to come … warmer temperatures as we started today in the high 40’s and gradually worked our way to the high 50’s.

Today’s ride targeted East Saguaro National Park. We took the same route as yesterday heading up the Harrison Greenway and then turned east along Irvington Rd, up to Escalnate Rd to arrive at the park entrance.

The designed bike paths are fantastic, road riding not quite so given the amount of debris on the road side. I did have one “low” tire that seemed to fix itself after re-airing it along the way.

Entrance into the park was easy with our National Parks pass as we joined a queue of several cars before starting the one way journey around the 8 mile loop.

The scenery was definitely NOT Alaskan in any way with saguaro cactus and numerous other cacti as far as one could see. The road was in good shape and we saw almost as many cyclists as we did cars driving the loop. This road is also not flat with lots of ups and downs and one serious down that was actually accurate with the warning sign.

Pretty true sign … quick steep descent into a hairpin curve … go National Park Service!

Beautiful View from East Saguaro pullout

After completing the loop, we opted to get a bite to eat at the Saguaro Corner restaurant and while eating I was also able to snap a few bird photos to add to the current Cycleblaze focus.

Northern Cardinal … rather anti-social character as he chased everybody else away.

Collared Peccary, aka Javelina, strolled by while we were eating

After our riding partners peeled off to head west on the Julian Bikeway, we opted to add a few more miles and head east. We ended up riding to the interstate before turning around and following Houghton Rd back to the AirBnB.

Unfortunately for us … flat #1 due to a small wire or possibly the other 3 thorn tips I pulled out of the PedalPushin Wife’s right front tire.

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Today's ride: 34 miles (55 km)
Total: 1,144 miles (1,841 km)

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Scott AndersonBoy were you lucky today! A cardinal, a pyrrhuloxia, and a Javalina!
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