Tucson Biking Part 3 The Loop

You would think that after climbing Mt Lemmon that we would want a day off the bike but Jack said he felt okay and wanted to do a recovery ride. Tucson has probably the best bike trail system I have ever seen. They call it The Loop and it is a series of over 130 miles of connected paved bike trails around the city. The plan was to head to one of the many parks along the Loop and do an easy out and back ride.

 

 

Of course since this was a Tom ride the park we planned to start at was closed for construction. We found another one close by (I always have a backup plan no matter where I ride now). Right after we got on the path there was a trail closure which we ignore and walked through and around a few hundred feel of dirt and construction vehicles to get back on the path. 

 

Once we were on the path it was great and the perfect way to recover from the previous days climbing. 

 

The part of the Loop we were on followed the Rillito river. Now this is Tucson which is a dessert and doesn't get a lot of rain so the river is a dry wash of sand and dirt that only sees water during the monsoon season in July and August. There is a path on both side of the river so we went down one side and up the other. On our way down there was one part of the trail that was not complete and just ended. Luckily we saw another biker at the end of the trail and he led us through a parking lot and on to the next segment. 

 

The Loop is more than a nice paved bike trail there is also a sand/dirt path next to it for mountain bikes and horses. There are parks and bathroom every 5 miles or so. There are also numerous hiking trail that start from the parks around the Loop so if you are doing any outdoor activity in Tucson chances are you going to be using one of the many facilities on the Loop.

 

Like any multi use trail some parts get crowded with people walking/riding and we did encounter a few spots where we had to slow down a little to get around a few people and bikes but considering it was a Saturday it really wasn't too bad. 

 

The view along the trail are tremendous as we could see Mt Lemmon and the other mountains surrounding Tucson. There were even a couple of sculptures along the way.

 

 

We ended up doing a slow 20 miles in our out and back loop and it was a good way to recover and see why the Loop is probably one of the best bike path systems there is in the country.