Originally Posted by
donheff
Could you expand on that a bit. My sister lives in North Tuscon. I visited her for a few days a couple of years ago and rode a bit on some beater bikes she has. The roads up that way seemed OK but I wasn't thrilled. Could you describe a few of the rides you liked so much. I may have failed to give the area a decent look.
We always make a point to do these two rides every time we visit:
- climb Mt. Lemmon (take Catalina Highway north-east from Tanque Verde for ~20 miles...
all of it uphill. Get a slice of pizza at the Cookie Shack, then turn around and ride another ~20 miles...
all of it downhill.
- the loop at Saguaro National Park East. Imagine a roller coaster that went through the most scenic, colorful portion of the Arizona desert. Now replace the tracks with smooth paved asphalt. Exquisitely beautiful. I think if I lived anywhere in the eastern part of the city I would make riding that loop my daily pre-breakfast ritual. It can be either peacefully meditative and a gut-busting workout...or both!
We also really like to take Sunrise > Skyline west to Oracle and then head up north into the Oro Valley...though sometimes traffic on those East-West roads can be nerve-racking, especially when there's road construction.
But where ever we ride in Tucson, we notice three things:
1) the city infrastructure acknowledges & accomodates cyclists as a fundamental component of travel, not as an afterthought
2) motor vehicles acknowledge & accomodate cylists -- perhaps begrudgingly, but that's better than nothing.
3) the other cyclists we meet on the road are, without exception, the most overtly friendly cyclists I've ever encountered anywhere!