My Tucson vacation has ended. I miss wearing shorts and seeing constant sunshine. While I accomplished the main activities that attracted me to vacation in Tucson, I did not feel comfortable biking to additional activities that I tried to plan after arriving in Tucson. Yes, I could have rented a car or used Uber or Lyft to access these additional activities. I have not driven a car for several years because driving is too stressful for me. I may have been too frugal but I wanted to avoid spending money to use Uber or Lyft. Since I am passionate about making the additional activities comfortable in the future, I want to share what happened.
Please improve The Loop!
The main reason why I wanted to vacation in Tucson was to bike along 131-mile The Loop. The trail is 131 miles as expected, but I quickly lost interest to bike much of it. As someone who is used to seeing water flowing in rivers, I was surprised to see dry rivers when biking along The Loop. Yes, this was my first time outside the airport in Arizona. Several people who grew up in the Southwest told me that dry rivers are common throughout the Southwest. They also taught me about washes, which I saw throughout Tucson and in the eastern Saguaro National Park. While there is no trash shown in the below photo, I was disgusted to see trash in many locations along the dry rivers.
I was also looking forward to chatting with people as we biked along The Loop. Unfortunately, all of the people I saw biking were fast cyclists that quickly passed me as I slowly biked. No one slowed down to talk with me! I talked with a few people in the parks that are located along the trail, but most of the people were too busy to talk for a long time. Due to how boring and depressing biking along the dry rivers was, I ended up not biking much of The Loop.
Even when I wanted to use The Loop to bike for short distances between places, I quickly learned that there are few trailheads. As the below photo shows, trail users are fenced in with few trailheads. I did not bike all 131 miles of the trail, so other sections of The Loop may have felt more welcoming and safer. Due to the lack of restaurants in the below section, I started to panic about where to eat. I should have researched this section more before biking it. I would have packed lunch in my bag or avoided the section. While I was fortunate that restaurants were only a few miles away and no one tried to hurt or steal from me, I honestly felt trapped by the fence with no way to escape!
The W Grant Road trailhead was the nearest trailhead. I had lunch at a nearby restaurant. As the person in black clothes walking their bike in the below photo shows, I was not the only person biking that stayed on the sidewalk. Unfortunately, most of the trailheads that I encountered had horrible routes immediately next to the trailheads. It appears The Loop was designed for training or recreational biking and not for transportation biking. I hope Tucson becomes more serious about designing the routes immediately next to the trailheads for people to safely and comfortably bike. In case you are familiar with The Loop’s trailheads, do any of the trailheads have safe and comfortable bike routes immediately next to the trailheads?
Biking to Saguaro National Park (East)
While I did not want to return to The Loop, I missed biking on a trail when biking to the eastern Saguaro National Park. In order to avoid biking on Tucson’s official “Bike Route”, which is just a sign as the below street view shows, I used Google Maps to create a safer bike route. I desperately wanted to use the official “Bike Route” signs to decide where to bike, but Tucson installed these signs on almost every road. Yes, I saw fast cyclists riding on the roads with “Bike Route” signs but I am not a fast cyclist. As I wrote about in this post, I feel many American cities use “Bike Route” signs and their bike map to show off. How many roads would be signed as a “Bike Route” in Tucson if the sign could only be used where it is actually safe and comfortable for children to bike?
The below street view shows the safer and more comfortable bike route that I used to bike between the bus stop and the eastern Saguaro National Park. Since I encountered no cars on this route, I enjoyed being able to use the whole lane to comfortably bike. I even saw kids biking along this route. We waved and smiled at each other. I doubt any of the motorists on the official “Bike Route” would have waved and smiled at me. Since I could not even see the motorists inside their vehicles because they were driving fast and their windows are tinted dark, the entire human interaction experience that I crave does not even exist on the official “Bike Route”!
The above street view shows E Discovery Drive. I used E Old Spanish Trail to bike to the eastern Saguaro National Park. The closest bus stop is at the Houghton Meat Market. I felt much safer and more comfortable biking on E Discovery Drive than on S Houghton Road. While I realize E Discovery Drive ends at E 22nd Street, I recommend showing E Discovery Drive as a bike route instead of S Houghton Road for people biking between the bus stop at the Houghton Meat Market and E Old Spanish Trail.
Since I do not want to give the impression that I did not enjoy the eastern Saguaro National Park, the below photo shows me hiking with my rental bike in the eastern Saguaro National Park. Yes, Stephan, the cactus looks like it is giving me the finger. While I considered biking to the western Saguaro National Park, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, I could not figure out a safe and comfortable route to bike from Tucson. I even research transit options but there is no bus service to any of these places!
Next Blog Post
This post is getting long. While I have plenty of other things to share about my Tucson vacation, I realize that I need to keep the post short. I want to end my post on a positive note, so the below photo shows me catching up with Tucson friends, who I met in Portland during grad school at PSU. Thanks to Britt and Dylan for helping me plan my Tucson vacation!
I honestly am not sure what my next post should be about. I could continue writing about how settling down could impact my car-free lifestyle. Since I no longer need to study for the AICP Certification Exam, I could continue writing about where I want to go for my next car-free vacation. Due to how frustrated I have become with local and regional transportation projects, I could write about the local and regional transportation projects that I am working on. While I am mostly writing this blog to document my car-free lifestyle and share this blog with my potential future wife and children (trying not to lose hope that I will get married and have children someday), I also welcome your thoughts on what you want to read. What do you think my next post should be about?
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I would like to hear about the transportation plans you are working on!
Thank you for sharing your preference! I could write posts about my work regarding the I-205 Toll Project, Oregon City – West Linn Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge Concept Plan, Oregon City Loop Trail, and the jurisdictional transfer of 82nd Avenue in Portland and how this transfer does not include Clackamas County’s section of 82nd Avenue. Since I want to keep my blog focused on how transportation has impacted my life’s journey, I need to find a way to balance writing about my transportation experiences with creating a blog similar to BikePortland. I feel that BikePortland focuses too much on what projects are happening and not enough on how transportation has impacted Jonathan Maus’ journey. I think Jonathan created BikePortland with a different purpose than the purpose of my blog.