Rolling out the old year

December 30, 2023 to December 31, 2023

In a year filled with memorable rides, we end it with a couple of familiar outings, putting our miles in on the Loop along out and back routes from home we’ve ridden many times before by now. Very pleasant but little new to report, so we might have taken a pass on posting them if it weren’t for the fact that there’s one last new bird to brag about, and because after all it’s the end of the year.

Saturday

Yesterday morning there was ice on the windshield when we woke up, but this morning it’s nearly sixty degrees already by the same time. With a high in the low seventies ahead, we’re facing what looks like the best riding day for the next two weeks. Surprisingly, in a few days the temperatures will drop significantly and we’re anticipating about ten days with highs in the low fifties, nights near freezing, and several days of showers or rain. Its likely that before long we’ll be looking up at some significant snow atop the Catalina Mountains.

Today though is great. I start the day off with the plan I had for yesterday by driving over to Sweetwater for a last look around before closing out the books. And it’s a successful one, as I’m lucky enough to see a pair of common gallinules as well as a few nice shots of other old favorites.

This must be the same immature Cooper’s Hawk I saw the last time out.

A northern rough-winged swallow (the small white blur in the center), one of about a half and dozen swooping across the pond. This exciting action shot, clipped from a video because they never seem to stop anywhere that I can see, is for Steve because he chided me for counting a bird I didn’t have photo evidence for.

For today’s ride we head up Oro Valley, this time in our old standard route - north down the Santa Cruz, then crossing under the I-10 freeway through the now reopened underpass. It measures almost exactly 42 miles to our traditional turnback spot, to which Rachael adds her also traditional two extra miles by continuing on to the end of the bike path. While we sit there eating our snacks we chat with an inspiring figure, a local rider who tells us he’s on his birthday ride. I ask him if he’s trying to bike his age in miles but he says that’s beyond him now. About the most he can do in a day is fifty miles, now that he’s 88.

Other than that and the loo stop we just ride, except for another chance encounter with Kelly. And we set a pretty fast pace the whole way, until the unexpectedly significant headwind slows us down considerably on the last ten miles south along the Santa Cruz. By the time we make it home I’m really dragging and realizing that after four straight days of forty or more miles I’m due for a day off - especially after that eight mile climb back to the car yesterday. We’ll have to seen how I’m doing in the morning, but it’s not feeling likely that I’ll take that climb up Madera Canyon I’d been planning on.

New Year’s Eve

If it weren’t the last day of the year I’m pretty sure I’d have been up for that 13 mile, 2,500’ climb up into Madera Canyon. I’m sorry to have to take a pass on it - after all, it’s my last chance this year to see a Woodhouse’s jay or acorn woodpecker - but it just doesn’t seem right to not be rolling out the old year with my best friend.

To close out the year, we pick one of Rachael’s favorites down here - the out and back along the northeast corner of the loop, a ride she remembers as the Hank Aaron ride. I gave that name to it for her when she rode it on January 22nd, 2021, the day after Hank Aaron died. the number on his uniform was 44, and we both rode 44 miles that day in his honor.

Other than being a different course, it’s a day like yesterday’s - fine weather, not too strenuous, and we both mostly just ride. I don’t stop for a photo until partway up Treat Street when Rachael points out an attractive mural I haven’t noticed before. I pull off to take a photo of course, but she rides on and says she’ll meet me later, with that sort of disgusted “Now I’ve done it” tone she gets in her voice when she screws up again and points out something that tempts me to stop for.

No wonder I haven’t noticed this before! It’s new since last winter. Thanks for pointing it out, Rocky!

I’m feeling pretty fit though so I decide to try to chase her down, just like I used to do when I was much younger on our after work rides after I stopped for a blackberry-picking break. And I do catch her, too. It takes about a mile, mostly because of two stoplights that she makes but I’m too late for, but by the time we reach the loop we’re back together again.

We ride together for about the next dozen miles, until I propose that she bike ahead on her own if she wants because I’m likely to stop soon at Sellarole Street anyway to see if the Harris’s Hawk family is in today. No hawks today, but just as good is a roadrunner blocking my path ahead. I’m just working my way closer for a better shot when a biker sends him hustling into the mesquite, but fortunately after that he stays put for awhile.

That holds me up awhile, long enough so that Rachael gets about two miles ahead of me. We reunite just south of Irvington Road when I see her racing downhill in my direction. We bike together for about three miles until we come to the first picnic bench along Pantano Wash, where we stop for a quick lunch break. And then it’s another two miles until we stop again at the rest stop at 22nd, and then we bike straight through to the Country Club bridge, mildly cursing as we go over the fact that the winds have shifted on us again and we seem to be having headwinds in both directions.

And then we stop to admire the awesome new mural on Rillito Wash, giving it the first really good look since we saw it when it was still in development last winter. We’ve biked past it previously this month, but today Rachael points out something I hadn’t noticed - the mural extends both above and below the bike path. First, we stop on the bridge to get a long view of it:

It’s funny that I didn’t notice before that it’s a split mural, bisected by the bike path. Also, at the time I took this shot I didn’t notice the distortion caused by the perspective and the width of the path. Look, for example, at the two halves of the jack rabbit and how right shifted his ears are.

After that we cross the bridge for a facing look, and that’s when the offsetting effect registers with me. You have to be straight across from the hummingbird to see its halves lined up correctly. If you look at the ones to the right or left they’re offset.

The straight-on look - the hummingbird is perfect, the hawk nearly so.

Looking back at the same section of the mural again after biking ahead a short ways.

It’s really an inspired creation, a great addition to the local scene. If you’re interested you might review what it looked like eleven months ago, when the project team was hard at work and the mural was maybe a fourth of the way competed. We were lucky to get to see it then.

Rachael bikes ahead while I’m taking photos of the mural, taking the chance to add one last extra mile to her year’s account. I take my time on the way home, allowing myself one more photo stop I’d noticed on the way out when I was racing to catch up again and was hoping would still be there when I returned.

A deflating picture. It looks like Winterhaven’s Festival of Lights is done for the year.

And so ends another year in our vagabond life, one unlike any of the others. Rachael keeps a detailed spreadsheet, and reads me the numbers soon after we get home:

Biking: about 5,700 miles, with 250,000’ of elevation gain.

Days biked: about 150, with an average day about 35 miles, with 1,000’ elevation.

Rachael’s hiking days: also about 150, adding up to 1,500 miles.

She’s more careful about keeping track of her own stats than mine, and misses a day here and there when I’m out on a bike and she’s walking. Still though, it’s a quite different report card than we’ve brought home from either of the previous five years, when we probably rode closer to 10,000 miles and much more strenuous ones.

The big issues this year of course were with our health. My arrhythmia greatly limited the types of rides we attempted, and I lost at least a full month after surgery. And Rachael had her own ongoing breathing and congestion issues that limit her and lead her to taking more walking days than she had in the past.

For myself though, things look much more promising now than they did at the end of last year. I’m especially pleased today to look back and see I’ve ridden 300 miles in the past week, starting with my birthday ride.

Today's ride: 88 miles (142 km)
Total: 765 miles (1,231 km)

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