A public service announcement

December 20, 2023

Oh, man! Will there be no end to this run of hot items insisting on being broadcast? When am I ever going to get a day off?

Today’s big news is that there are some blockages on the loop, two of which prevent us from riding two of our favorite segments of the Loop. The first is the run up the Santa Cruz, which we rode today planning to get to the end of the trail and then stopping for lunch at our traditional spot, the lookout over the seasonal lake near Marana. It’s a good birding spot in the right season, as this figures to be from what we’ve seen so far here. The usual plan is for us to ride together to this point and then Rachael continues on for another mile plus to Agra Road while I stare out at the lake.

Not today though. There’s a complete closure of the trail at Cotaro Road, about three miles from the lake. We tried detouring through the neighborhoods to get around the construction project that’s closed it but gave up and turned back, breaking for lunch instead sitting at a playground near a restroom, watching a couple of adolescent girls playing on the climbing equipment.

On the way back we ran into another biking couple stopped at the closure point. We paused for a view minutes to chat and console each other about the situation, and they told us of additional bad news: access to the segment up Oro Valley is also closed for construction. Sad because it’s one of our favorite rides here, and was the plan for tomorrow until hearing this.

On the we back south we stopped at the start of the Oro Valley pathway and confirmed the closure:

The closure cut our ride short by about eight miles, so on the way back we overshot past Saint Mary’s and continued south toward Valencia Road a ways before turning back. So not the ride we were planning on, but not a total loss either. We got our miles in, and saw not one but three roadrunners. So that’s newsworthy too.

First of the season, if you don’t count the one Rachael saw but didn’t photograph yesterday.

Interesting clouds over the Catalina range. Tucson has the best skyscapes!

In the Santa Cruz wash. More photogenic than the guy I saw yesterday, working his way down the wash with a golf club driving tee shots.

Later, I looked up the Loop website for closure information and saw that the situation isn’t as sorry as it seemed. The Santa Cruz closure is part of a lengthy project that began last winter (it affected us then too, but not to the same extent), and is due to be completed by the end of the year - so there’s hope on that one. And the news on the Oro Valley is even better. It’s confined to the I-10 underpass, and is short-term. It looks like it will reopen in a couple of days so it shouldn’t really affect us.

Just so you know what to expect if you come down this way. You can get current information here: https://www.pima.gov/250/Notices-Closures

Today's ride: 41 miles (66 km)
Total: 409 miles (658 km)

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