The Loop - Tucson

In this episode, The Huckleberry Loop . . .

Last week we spoke about a BIG world just waiting to be explored. Well, Christmas week 2021, we extended our exploration while planning for 2022. We loaded up our truck for some vacation time and headed for Tucson, AZ.

"Why Tucson?" you ask?

The Huckleberry Loop, of course.

The Chuck Huckleberry Loop is a system of paved, shared-use paths and short segments of bicycle (bike) lanes connecting the Cañada del Oro, Rillito, Santa Cruz, and Pantano River Parks with Julian Wash and Harrison Road Greenway in Tucson. It totals about 137 miles of beautifully paved pathways. The Loop stretches more than 45 miles north to south and almost 30 miles east to west. Some 70% of the Loop directly follows the banks of five significant watersheds that dominate the Tucson Valley.

Since the late 1980s, Tucson has been building this series of bicycle trails in conjunction with flood control waterways that circumnavigate the city.

"The Loop" (as it's known) became a reality in January of 2018 when Pima County, AZ. completed a connection of five of the six Loop trail sections that form an elongated circle around the city of Tucson.

It's a 53.9-mile circuit, and completing it in one day is known to the locals as "Looping the Loop." According to local author and bicyclist of the book The Loop - Americas #1 Recreational Trail, "Doing so requires a little local knowledge since it requires crossing back and forth across riverbeds several times to avoid backtracking."

We stayed at the Hilton Homewood Suites off North Campbell. It has a large parking lot with a friendly local Pedego bicycle shop and direct access to the trail. The staff there will be happy to provide you with maps and advice on avoiding backtracking while completing the Loop.

The Loop extends through unincorporated Pima County, Marana, Oro Valley, Tucson, and South Tucson. The connections result from Pima County's cooperative partnerships with these jurisdictions.

This network of trails connects public parks, hiking trailheads, bus and bike routes, workplaces, restaurants, schools, hotels and motels, shopping areas, and entertainment venues. Visitors and Pima County residents can enjoy the Loop on foot, bikes, skates, and horses.

There is one section, as of 2021, not yet completed, a 1.3-mile segment of surface streets with a wide bike lane along Rita Road.

We completed the 54 miles "Loop the Loop" in about 5 hours. As you cruise the pristine pavement, you may come upon an electric golf cart; these are friendly maintenance crew members that keep debris off the trail, the restrooms clean, and are always willing to answer questions you may have along the way. We thoroughly recommend it to anyone. What a wonderful experience.

So, get out there and explore!

I'm Patrick Ball; thanks for listening; I'll see you in the next episode.

Comments

Don Hanley said…

Good essay and I wish I had known about these kind of trails years ago. Would you and Lori have invited a couple of teens you knew join you and do you think they would enjoy it? Thanks, Don Hanley

January 10, 2022 at 2:48 PM

We Need Awe More Than Ever

In this episode, Why We Need Awe More Than Ever Yesterday morning, I slipped into the cool stillness of my backyard before dawn. The air was crisp, the silence deep—broken only by the faint rustling of leaves and the familiar calls of birds waking early. Then I looked up. A thin crescent moon hung low in the east, with Venus just above it like a shining jewel. The sky was clear and full of stars, and for a moment, I felt something I hadn’t in a long time: Awe! For thousands of years, the heavens have carried on their steady dance, untouched by human noise. No ruler, no election, no breaking news has ever changed their rhythm. And yet here I was, tempted to reach for my phone—to trade the eternal for the urgent. Instead, I stayed. I watched the moonrise, the sky slowly lighten, and the world around me stir. Ducks passed overhead in a loose V, hummingbirds zipped past to visit their feeder, pausing mid-air as if curious about me sitting so still. Little by little, the static in my mind f...

The Silent Grid–Part Two

In this episode, The Silent Grid – Part Two Sirens split the night as Greenwood went dark. Marvin knew instantly—the blackout wasn’t an accident. It was a warning. In this quiet town, where life once unfolded at a predictable pace, a sleek, intuitive smartphone—a so-called gift from the future —has arrived. But it’s no tool for connection. It’s a silent force, erasing individuality and turning neighbors into something less than human. Marvin Gellborn, a man who values independence, sees the truth. His device isn’t helping; it’s testing him, watching him, and quietly embedding itself into the life of Greenwood. Welcome back to On the Fly . In this week’s episode of The Silent Grid , GridBot tightens its grip. After a hopeful community gathering, Marvin and his robot companion, Norman, notice a troubling absence—the very generation they hoped to reach has vanished into the neon glow of The Signal Box , a youth tech hub pulsing with digital obsession. When Greenwood’s lights vanish, Marvi...

The Birth of a Cubs Legend

In this episode, The 162-Game Exhale — and the Birth of a Cubs Legend There’s a hush in the baseball world on Game 162 — a collective breath drawn in and slowly released. Scoreboards stop flipping. Dugouts empty. For six months, the game has been our steady heartbeat, pulsing from the cherry blossoms of Tokyo in March to the crisp, playoff-charged winds of late September. And now, as the regular season exhales, baseball fans everywhere pause to absorb the story we’ve just lived. For me, that story has been deeply personal. This season unfolded in the rhythms of my daily life. It was the summer soundtrack echoing beneath the constant turmoil of politics and sensational headlines. It was a handful of carefully chosen ballpark pilgrimages stitched together with countless nights in front of MLB.TV. And at the center of it all, for a lifelong Cubs fan like me, it revolved around one name — a young center fielder who turned hope into history: Pete Crow-Armstrong. The 2025 season didn’t begin...

The Pessimism Aversion Trap

In this episode, The Pessimism Aversion Trap Picture this: a room full of bright minds nodding in agreement as a bold new strategy is unveiled. The slides are polished, the vision is grand, and the future, we're told, has never looked brighter. Everyone beams—because who wants to be the one to say, "Um… this might not work"? Heaven forbid someone spoil the mood with a dose of reality. Better to smile, add a buzzword or two, and march confidently toward disaster. That's how the Pessimism Aversion Trap works. Even now, I can still hear the sound—a high-pitched shriek and a digital hum, followed by the slow, rhythmic clatter of data pouring from a 5¼-inch floppy disk. It was the late 1980s, and my makeshift home office (our living room) was dominated by what felt like a marvel of modern engineering: a used Tandy 1000 PC with not one, but two floppy drives. To top it off, we purchased a 'blisteringly fast' 300-baud modem—which, for the uninitiated, could downloa...

On The Fly

Search This Blog