My stepdad has been on my mind all week. My friend Karen, who lives in Aptos, CA, is also on my mind as California's central coast is getting pounded with its 10th storm this winter. We are due the southern edge of that storm Sunday and Monday. That means today is the only non-rain day forecasted.
I should have left the house early to drive toward Keystone Peak. Yet I didn't. Sweetie looked like she wasn't feeling very well and lay in the doghouse for most of the morning. She ate and drank and did her usual loop around the block, but otherwise acted lethargic.
I finally took off in the early afternoon for a Yelp Event in Tucson, at a craft coffee truck nestled in the back of a plant nursery off 22nd Street. The owner is Persian-American and very focused on making a good product. I had a very sweet Coconutella, a latte made with espresso and Nutella.
I noticed The Pit (also on 22nd Street) was open so I stopped by there to talk to the owner, Chris, who usually is in the beer store. A few days ago Tucson Foodie, a website that covers all things food and drink in the Tucson area, reported that the Pit was forced to close immediately due to some code violations. I wanted to hear the latest from Chris. He gave me the rundown of the latest.
According to Chris, Councilman Paul Cunningham, Representative for Ward 2 which covers northeast Tucson, worked his butt off to allow Chris to keep The Pit open for the next 45-90 days as long as he works on getting some changes going. I'm happy for that, as I like The Pit and the concept of a diverse food truck plaza on an empty lot that once was home to an old gas station. It's right off The Loop and makes for a great place to take a break and have food or drink. There are even doggie bars. The Pit offers cornhole for families. Some changes include making sure food trucks are at least 100 feet apart from each other, and that they must leave the premise at night (?!) The bathroom inside the beer shop is not a designated customer bathroom because the piping is outdated.
I couldn't stay long, though, as I wanted to walk more of The Loop since I was in town. I was losing daylight and had to get started.
Clouds began to move in by mid-afternoon, the front of the big storm from California. This made for perfect hiking weather had the clouds moved in earlier and I had started an hour earlier
I parked on Irvington Road, walked with Fritz north to the northern end of the Greenway on Sellarole Street, where SteveT and I turned around the last time we walked the Pantano Wash section late last year.
The northern section of the Harrison Greenway isn't very exciting. The path is too close to the busy road; not very calming for dogs. This section is only 1.3 miles, so at least it was quick to finish.
What I did like is the section south from Irvington Road. Here is where the greenway takes on a whole different character as it travels due south between a desert mountainbike park and the eastern perimeter of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
I began this section at 4:20pm. That gave me just a little over an hour of sunlight. Cholla, creosote, saguaros and palo verde lined the pathway. This must be a very fragrant section in the spring. Lots of cyclists of all ages, including familes, joggers and powerwalkers, used this section. Two javelina were watching me. I was averaging 3.6 miles an hour. We walked 7.45 miles out-and-back. This helped me finish the first 100 miles of the Run the Year 2023 program I am in.
I couldn't finish on time. I turned around with a little over a mile left, just past a shrine dedicated to a young cyclist, to make it back to the truck at sunset, 5:42pm. This section has no streetlights nearby and gets dark after sunset. I didn't want angry javelina attacking me.
Fritz was tired when we were done and I was hungry. I stopped at a cheap Mexican fast-food restaurant, Los Betos, on Golf Links Road, then drove on home. No beer stop tonight as I wanted to get back to the dogs.
I now have just under two miles of the Harrison Greenway to complete. I may also have a few miles of the western Julian Wash to walk before declaring The Loop completed. My next endeavor is walking the southern part of the Santa Cruz River walk. This is a historic section, as Father Kino traveled the river north on his way to California, back in the 17th century.
I made it home just before 9pm. Sweetie was waiting by the gate, looking much better. An hour later the winds began to pick up and the winds kept getting stronger. Rain is forecasted for late morning, but it looks like the brunt of the rain will come Monday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzeGwQkEDYY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq3iOBuJiZU
https://weather.com/news/video/californias-lake-cachuma-at-100-capacity-due-to-recent-storms
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