Redington Road

December 28, 2023

Rachael’s got an appointment at a clinic this morning, up near the Tucson Mall. It cuts a hole in her day so a bike ride won’t really work out, so she plans to fit some sort of walk in after her appointment. I propose that I drive her out there so she can walk back, and I’ll use the excuse of being out with the car anyway to start my ride from somewhere different and get some variety in my biking diet. And since I’ll be on my own I decide to pick a route that she’s unlikely to want to go with me on.

We’ve biked out to Redington Road twice in the last few years, both times as out and backs starting from Oracle to the end of the pavement on the north end of Redington Road. Beyond that it turns to dirt and gravel, but if we continued on it eventually comes out the other side in east Tucson at the end of Tanque Verde Road. In between, the sign warns us, Redington Road looks like this:

I’ve never seen Redington Road from the Tucson end, but I’ve been curious. This feels like the right day for it. If I start my ride on the loop at Rillito Park it’s a 40 mile round trip to the end of the pavement. I decide I’ll do that, and then bike a ways out beyond the pavement to test out the surface and maybe pad my miles to 42. Rachael’s skeptical I’ll actually do that, but reminds me before I drop her off at the clinic to be back well before 4 so we’re not late for dinner with Kelly and Jacinto.

The first ten miles of the ride were east on the Loop, following the Rillito and then the Pantano. Nothing new to report, except that I followed the south bank east of Dodge Road today just for variety, and found that I prefer it over the north; and saw a bright male vermillion flycatcher almost immediately after leaving the car, which I took as a good omen for the day but didn’t bother photographing it because how many photos of a vermillion flycatcher do we really need in this journal, after all? And I got a terrible, out of focus photo of a yellow warbler that I thought I’d include anyway, until I got home later and was reminded I already saw one last February. And I saw five(!) red tailed hawks perched in trees or atop utility poles or saguaros, one of which I liked enough to include.

Ten miles into the ride I left the loop for Tanque Verde Road, which I followed due east for the next six or seven miles. I’ve ridden this road once before on my way to Agua Caliente Park, a birding spot. I didn’t really care for Tanque Verde then, and I don’t really care for it today either. Its got a decent shoulder and it’s marked as a bike route, but it’s just too busy to be really enjoyable.

Fine enough, if all you’re after is your workout. I usually want more.

Not today, but we’re still thinking about it.

After about four miles though it gets considerably quieter, and has a few surprises. Like the egret and kingfisher on the pond of a gated subdivision.

And it does provide one of my favorite views of Mount Lemmon, from Agua Caliente Wash.

Is that Finger Rock on the right? I’d never heard of it until Jacinto talked about his plan to hike up to it. Looks beautiful, but treacherous.

After about Houghton, the environmental quality improves considerably as the traffic drops way down and we’re mostly out of town and into desert and ranch country. The shoulder is gone, which is fine because there are so few cars now. I still don’t care for the road so much though, because now the surface is pretty crappy - rough, cracked and broken, what I like to call alligator chipseal.

So, not a particularly great ride so far once I left the Loop; but it’s the price I’m paying for the chance to check out Redington Road, which Tanque Verde transitions into east of Wentworth Road. And this is when the ride finally gets interesting, fast. First, the terrain changes as we come to the end of Tucson’s broad basin and begin climbing up the saddle between the Catalina and Rincon Ranges. Its suddenly quite striking, and reminds me of biking through the National Park - which after all is only about a mile or so south of here. Rough-surfaced or not, this next mile is really worth the ride out. So far, I’m quite impressed with Redington Road.

Some fairly serious climbing looms ahead.

It’s not long though before the pavement ends, and I’m facing the 25 miles of ‘narrow, winding dirt road’ the sign above warns me of. I could turn back here, but I’m curious to see how rough this road is, and how the Rodriguez with its 28x700 tires will do so I continue climbing for a ways - slowly, because it’s steep, sandy and gravelly and every now and then a vehicle passes me and kicks up dust and pushes me to the side of the narrow road.

Really though, it’s not too bad today. I continue climbing for about a mile, lured on by what looks like the summit of Redington Pass just ahead. Around each bend I come to it looks like the road is cresting just ahead, but it never does. Later I’ll map it out and see that the summit is still about another four miles beyond the point where I finally turn back. Not too steep by now, but still quite slow going. But definitely beautiful, with wonderful views across the basin to the mountains far off west of Tucson.

After about a mile though I come to a spot where I can see ahead far enough to realize that reaching the summit and earning a view out the other side won’t be happening today. I’m still game really, but I’m out of time. It’s around 1:30, the car is over 20 miles away, and we have a dinner date with Kelly and Jacinto to get back to.

I’m thinking though that I’ll give this another try someday by driving up near the end of the pavement and starting there. I could bike maybe ten miles on this stuff, get some views, and then backtrack. I change my mind though while on the descent, which is of course technically more difficult and squirrelier than the climb. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to do a five mile descent on this bike with these tires, so this is probably it. I’m definitely glad I came up though.

I make it back home by four. There’s just time for me to shower and shave before it’s time to rush off to Locale for our dinner date. We arrive something like a minute before our guests, and enjoy a fine meal - this is really the first time we’ve gotten to know Jacinto, save for a very brief encounter when we happened across him on Christmas Day a few years back. Its about time.

I can’t believe we nearly forgot to take a photo! Fortunately Rachael remembered at the last minute, when all there’s left to look at is our smiles and a box of leftovers.

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Kelly IniguezI finally rode Jacinto's recommended ride out the newly repaved Speedway to Douglas Springs hiking area. Nine miles from the loop, smooth as butter. Tomorrow my plan is to turn left from Speedway onto Tanque Verde Loop, to Tanque Verde, and then to the end of the pavement on Redington Road. I had remembered you riding this. I didn't realize it was the same day we went to dinner! You've given it enough of a good recommendation here, I'm going to try the Speedway variation. Wish me luck. Tomorrow is Sunday, so there shouldn't be much traffic.
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3 weeks ago

Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 631 miles (1,015 km)

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