River trail entrance with "A" Mountain in the background.
My Epic in Pieces begins with a 6 am cruise along the Santa Cruz River Park in Tucson; I also celebrate the beginning of the FIFA World Cup 2010 by wearing my vaguely Italian Coppi Team jersey.
The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail runs from Nogales, AZ, to San Francisco, CA. De Anza forged this trail in 1776, leading almost 300 people across the deserts of Arizona and California to start European settlements in northern California. My 75-mile bicycle epic will follow his journey between Nogales and Tucson using built and unbuilt trail and portions of the De Anza "auto tour." The Santa Cruz River will be my dry companion. Each week, I will ride a little or a lot. If enthused, I will extend my journey with De Anza north toward the Gila River, then west to the mighty Colorado River.
With this epic, I return to the original purpose of the blog: describing local adventures that can be done before and after work or on the weekends.
Enough history and projections, let's ride!
Dirt trail heads north to downtown Tucson.
De Anza moved his Spanish fort from Tubac to Tucson in 1776 and called it "San Augustin de Tuquison."
Santa Cruz River looking north.
Santa Cruz River looking south, still no water.
Art, for art's sake.
The shady paved trail leads to....
a shaded playground. Kids aren't up yet at 6:45 am.
Some adults exercise on these contraptions, I choose not to.
I ride my bike, de Anza rode his horse.
Faded sign tells me I'm on the De Anza Trail.
Sign describes Acequia (water channel) project near "A" Mountain.
Flags of many nations at world plaza.
More art: Meet me by the flying yellow horny toad.
"A" Mountain tells me I'm almost done with today's piece of the epic ride.
I finish just in time to go watch the first World Cup match: Mexico v. South Africa. Viva Mexico!
De Anza Trail mileage: 4
Total De Anza Trail mileage: 4
Today's mileage: 10
History interesting. Not too much. Great idea to celebrate the start of FIFA!
Posted by: Lisa Howells | 06/11/2010 at 01:10 PM