Arizona # 20 January 30 – February 3, 2017 102 Miles
Headed for Oro Valley north of Tucson. It was a long trip from Big Bend in Texas to Tucson. Oh yeah, Texas is BIG!! Guess we are spoiled because the scenery along the way seemed a bit boring.
We planned to camp at Catalina State Park, once again a campground right on the bike path. There weren’t any campsites available the first night so we stayed at a Wal-Mart that was across the street. Bonus was dinner out. Yay!! Cold nights so we were thankful that we have a really good heater.
Catalina is a beautiful park, cacti of all shapes and sizes. We saw a Cooper Hawk one morning sitting on top of a saguaro cactus and one evening we saw a huge owl fly into a nearby tree. Flo loved running in the shallow, sandy river bottom. I think she was surprised there was no salt taste in the water. While hiking with Flo one morning I saw a women riding a horse called a “Gypsy”. She said he was from the British Isles – beautiful with feathering on lower legs similar to what you see on a Clydesdale. Very unusual.
We rode two days on the Canada del Oro River Park Trail. The first day we connected to the Santa Cruz River Park Trail for a total of 34 miles. The second day we road the Canada del Oro and the Rittolo River Park Trail for 37 miles. We saw several roadrunners. They are the quickest little birds!! Beep! Beep! There were only a couple of street crossing as there were undercrossings at most of the roads. Both days we fought the wind on our return. Tired!! Found a really nice local restaurant that was having $1.00 taco night. We love $1.00 tacos!!
There was frost on the ground the morning we left to head for Mesa, AZ. We plan to visit my cousin Carol and her husband Ron. Fortunately we were able to park right beside their home. We had a wonderful visit, caught up on our laundry. Yay! Carol and I went to the movies one afternoon and saw “A Dog’s Purpose”. (Take Kleenex!) Nice to have a couple of days off the bikes.
We took an afternoon to ride Rio Saldo Paths and Indian Bend Wash. The start of the Rio Salado Paths was in Mesa at Wrigleyville West, the Cubs spring training facilities. We followed the trail along the Salt River in Tempe, past Arizona State University campus and across a really nice bridge to the Indian Bend Wash trail.
Indian Bend Wash took us to Scottsdale, the spring training facilities for the San Francisco Giants. Their ball fields were beautiful. Part of the Rio Salado Paths was under construction – the workers were very kind in letting us pass through. While putting out bikes back on the motorhome our mild mannered Flo showed some aggressive barking toward a park ranger. He threatened to tase her. We are so thankful he did not! Not certain what set her off, but Lenny was inside and I was outside when he approached. Guess she thought I needed protection.
We said our good-byes to Ron and Carol on February 4, 2017 and headed for Lake Mead, NV.
- Canada Del Oro River Park Trail to Santa Cruz River Park Trail
- Canada Del Oro to Rittolo River Park
- Rio Saldo Paths/Indian Bend Wash