The Loop: eastern terminus of the Julian Wash

I slept in and didn't wake up until the sun shined through the window.  My runny nose was dry and my sore throat back to normal.  Maybe I just had a 24-hour cold?   Warm weather was forecasted for today and I didn't want to waste a spring-like day in the RV.

So by noon I headed to Tucson with Fritz and Gretchen to finish walking the short sections of the Loop that I still had to do.  I figured that would be around eight miles. if I completed all three gaps in my walking map.

My first stop was Rita Road, southeast of Tucson.  I wanted to finish the southern part of the Harrison Greenway that I began a few weeks ago.  I ended up parking at the unmarked parking area by railroad tracks and followed the eastern greenway that lead not to the Harrison Greenway, but to the Houghton Road connector.  I somehow missed the directional signs.  The path I took paralleled the tracks across the desert and avoided the cyclists just south of me within view.  This was not a scenic walk at all, neither for me or for the dogs.

The multi-use path along Houghton Road is a straight path that travels due north and never leaves the noise of the road; not a very fun walk for dogs.  I may walk that someday, but my next goal is to explore the Santa Cruz river park starting at Valencia Road travelling north.  This is the path that Father Kino allegedly took as he traveled northeast to establish missions on his way to central California. I like historical walks.

But I was disappointed in myself.  I should have looked at the Loop map closer and known that I had to walk north along Rita Road before turning left (north) on Harrison Greenway.  It looks like a round-trip walk of just a bit over three miles.  Instead, I walked 4.7 miles through the desert without making any progress on the Loop.

My next move was to finish the Julian Wash Greenway.  I had to start off Park Avenue, just a block north of the recycling station.  By now, though, it was in the upper 70s and rather unpleasant for the dogs.  The path here edges right on high-traffic streets around the Veteran's Hospital.  The noise and smells of Tucson traffic is not calming by any means, neither to human and dog.  I cut this walk short to continue later when it was cooler.

I stopped at Borderland's Brewing in mid-afternoon.  I parked across the street and left the dogs to rest in the shade in the truck.  I struck an interesting conversation with a 26-year-old IT specialist traveling for the next three months from Cleveland, OH all the way up the western coastline.  He has to be back home in April.  He's traveling in a converted Ford Transit van by himself and stopping along the way in towns to try out local beers.

I felt a connection with him despite our age difference.  Here's a young man exploring the western states, hiking trails and meeting local people and then boondocking at night in off-the-path places.  This is what I do when I road trip.  When he asked about sites I should see, suddenly all those hikes I did with Sadie and Minnie in 2015-2018 came back to me.  I remember images but then can't recall the names of where I was.

Mount St Helen's National Park did come to mind.  Hiking the bald ridgeline near St Helens after the volcanic eruption is quite a sight to behold, looking at all that destruction and seeing the mountain tops come back to life after total destruction just 40 years ago is worth experiencing.  There is plenty of national forest land nearby where he could boondock as well.

He thanked me for that advice, as he hadn't considered stopping at Mount St Helen's National Park.

I also warned him of the many NO OVERNIGHT CAMPING signs along the Oregon coast, despite what the tourist websites claim is public land one could camp on.

I miss my annual road trips, but I'm tied down for a few years with these dogs.  

We chatted for over two hours.  We then went our separate ways and I resumed my walk along the Julian Wash.  It was now just before sunset and more pleasant to walk.

This time, though, the dogs saw a young man walking a pug and lunged forward with so much force, they pushed me down and dragged me.  I could not stop.  I was in so much shock at their combined force, that I could either scream nor discipline them.  A chainlink fence stopped me from rolling down a cement embankment.  The woman screamed at her partner for help who was behind her on the trail with an even bigger dog, but the dogs were on leashes which I was still holding in my hands.  He got up to her and together they continued to walk.  Here I was still on the ground and feeling a bleeding abrasion on my upper left thigh.

I was now both angry and aghast.  Angry at the dogs for causing me harm, and disgusted at the young couple who rendered no help to me, not even a "Are you OK?" My only saving grace is that nothing happened to their dogs.  By now I was fed up with my dogs' constant reactivity, that I walked them back to the truck to stay there while I finished the walk on my own.

It was now dark when I finished this most eastern terminus of the Julian Wash.  I've now completed this section of the Loop with a slow walk around the archeological site found here. I'd like to come back here during the day and read the informational signs in better light.  The Santa Cruz river walk south of the Julian Wash will be another path to explore.

I was hungry now, but I quickly discovered that the two Mexican restaurants recommended to me by Google that were in the immediate area were truly Mexican restaurants.  I was on 12th Avenue, a part of South Tucson with some of the densest Sonoran restaurants in the country.  I walked to one and got stared down by the Spanish-speaking people watching me approach them.  Was I invading their turf? Bright lights, loud music are typical of these authentic Mexican diners, and I opted to eat elsewhere to keep the dogs calm. I'm sure the food is good, but at night the atmosphere is pure Mexico.

I found a quieter place to eat on 22nd Avenue, just before stopping at the Hop Street Lounge where Dion, my bartender from my last visit, had just gotten off his shift and was now chilling with some friends by the pool table.  He recognized me and even remembered the beers I ordered.  Yikes!  He remembered that I had taken seven canned beers with me, making my bill rather high.

Thus ended a good day.  I had walked 12 miles and the dogs walked ten.  We were all tired.  I had to stop in Benson on my drive home to nap for a bit before resuming my drive home.  I got to the RV at 3:30am.