Adventure: Tucson — SpiritScout

2022

One frigid February morning, with almost no preamble, my husband sat down with his laptop and booked a trip on Expedia. We have been together for forty years and I have never seen him do anything remotely like this. It’s true that we’d been waking up to sub-zero temperatures every morning in a perpetual winter, and we were two solid years into the pandemic—so these may have been contributing factors to Jeff’s wild-hair moment. He’d become so weary of second-guessing our safety and sanity strategies that taking a spin on the roulette wheel of travel suddenly felt like a reasonable thing to do.

Where do frozen Vermonters choose to go for some fun in the sun? For bike lovers Arizona is an obvious choice. Blessed with miles of desert trails, epic climbs, and sunny scenic vistas, it is a magnet for the wheeled set. Only some singletrack on a sunny Sonoran Desert was going to cure us of this whack-a-mole winter therefore Tucson was our ticket. The first week of March we packed up our biking gear, double-masked, triple vaxxed, and headed for the airport.

Blessed with great weather on our Sonoran escape, we enjoyed a fun-filled week of riding and hiking with bluebird skies crowning each day. In keeping with our ‘Dirt by Day, Lux by Night’ motto we stayed at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, the first eco-conscious resort built in America. Located Northeast of the city in the gorgeous Sabino Canyon, this delightful sanctuary is aptly named: ‘Ventana’ means window in Spanish. Our views of the Catalina Mountains and the nightlights of Tucson were truly spectacular. There are two golf courses, tennis, and a spa/gym on this property, but we opted for a 5-mile hike, direct from our doorstep, on day one. This trail immediately integrated us with the heat and the beauty of the desert—and we even had a rattlesnake greet us with a warning!

Pop the code in and GO! The concierge system lets you customize your trip daily.

On this trip we opted to rent bikes vs. flying in our own because we wanted to ride both gravel grinders and mountain bikes. We had already completed the epic 25-mile climb up Mt Lemmon on a previous visit, so we didn’t need road bikes, but they are available to rent if this route is on your bucket list.

We contacted Bob’s Bikes for their mountain and gravel bike concierge service, which we loved, because all we had to do was drive to a GPS specific trailhead and our bikes were there waiting for us. No bike shop pick-up or deadlines, and no hauling bikes in the back of a giant rental van. It’s a logistics system that evolved in Tucson during Covid and I hope it remains—it’s super slick and really cuts down on the drive time around town and car rental costs.

Our favorite mountain bike trails for fun-filled flow were mainly in the Northeastern part of Tucson, especially the Honeybee Canyon area. You simply can’t beat the feeling of flying around the desert on these buffed up trails. For more technical rocky riding Starr Pass is the area to tackle. The baby-head boulders and steep pitches keep you spinning and sweating—might wanna bring the band-aids! March temperatures were in the high 60’-low 70’s, perfect for riding; drinking copious amounts of water and wearing sunscreen protection is always mandatory in the desert. It’s cool at night, so I was happy that I brought a Nano-style jacket but it’s also way hotter than it feels during the daytime. I wore this Janji hyper-light visored cap underneath my heImet and on hikes—it was a chic and protective godsend on the trip.

Be sure to have the Trailforks app at the ready as there is almost no trail signage and navigating is a necessary part of the fun. Make sure you are running tubeless tires and have a small set of tweezers along as the airborne cacti needles love to join you for the ride. Also, watch out for rattlesnakes. They were just starting to come out in early Spring, and they like to nap in the sun. They won’t attack you, but if they feel threatened, they will defend. Jeff rode right on top of this fat boy—yikes—so be ready alert. Ironically, the sound that the flywheel makes on a bike sounds almost exactly like the rattle of the snake’s keratin, so that provided a kind of freaky adrenaline rush during the rides. I must admit that there was a palpable sense of relief each day when we loaded into the car safe and sound.

Jeff’s front wheel rolled right up the rock in the foreground—until he saw this beautifully camouflaged rattlesnake: BRAKE! (The snake slept through it all.)

On adventure trips we typically fuel up for the day with a hefty brunch, and post-ride, we opt for a frozen yogurt loaded with all the trimmings. I went bonkers for our PeachWave discovery, which has shops scattered across the USA and is hands-down the best frozen yogurt joint we’ve ever visited. That treat gets us through to dinner, around 6:30 pm, leaving plenty of time in between for exploring the historic sites and the local arts scene. Our favorite spots were the Tohono Chul, the Tucson Botanical Gardens, and The Degrazia Gallery In The Sun. These are all conveniently located within a few miles of the trailheads and made for a nice counterpoint to the biking. Strolling through the acres of exotic desert gardens and drinking in the Southwestern art vibe was so refreshing and substantive—it is so dramatically different from Vermont in every way, that it’s hard to believe that we actually live in the same country.

We hiked mostly in Sabino Canyon Recreation Area as the park is less than three miles from The Ventana and it is endlessly spectacular, especially the Phoneline Trail. There are so many parks in Tucson that it’s hard to keep track, so do a little homework to familiarize yourself on a map first. One ride/hike not to be missed is in Saguaro National Park. Tank up first a Le Buzz Cafe, then head to Saguaro National Park East. It is a paved one-way 8- mile loop that features multiple vista points on a wild, winding ride. Cars are few, and creep by the cyclists, so it’s kind of a free-for-all feeling on sweet pavement. It is so fabulous that we did the loop twice. Our bikes were delivered to us by Bob’s Bikes at the exact time we requested and we had a blast exploring the park on our gravel grinders.

Tucson is a famously bike-centric city and you could spend the whole week just figuring out how to navigate the city’s 137-mile Chuck Huckleberry Loop—although we wouldn’t recommend it. Not all sections are created equal, so do some planning beforehand. Check with your bike shop or hotel to determine best routes and the bike drop-off availability. If you are not so much into the biking, these ticketed events look fun, and we would give them a go next time.

As far as spending time in the downtown city of Tucson, we did that for a half-day and that was plenty for us. Our main goal was to eat at The Cup Cafe located in the Hotel Congress, a place we adore—and it did not disappoint. The quaint but cool setting has next-level food and you feel like you are hanging out in the vortex of the city’s funky energy when you visit. Not to be missed is the pie selection for dessert (I am still dreaming about their coconut cream pie!)

*‘Sit, Feast on Your Life’* Le Buzz Cafe—where coffee is mandatory!

In general, we loved the food scene in Tucson—especially Le Buzz Cafe and Bisbee Breakfast for brunch. We fell in love with the Decibel Coffee brand and now have the beans delivered to our home. For dinner, we opt for casual places that serve farm-to-table quality food in an hour. Highly recommended are Commoner & Co, El Charro, and Bill’s Grill/Ventana. Long evenings of white-cloth dining don’t appeal to us as much because we’re simply pooped after an exciting day of exploring. All we need is a fast & fab meal so that we can get back to our Lux room—and watch Yellowstone!

Speaking of food, did you know that in 2015 Tucson was named the first American city (of two) that have been designated a UNESCO City of Gastronomy? According to Smithsonian Magazine ‘this region has one of the longest food heritages on the continent. Often considered the birthplace of Tucson itself, the swath of Sonoran Desert nestled at the base of the Tucson Mountains is where the O'odham people settled, planting crops of maize, tepary beans and other produce amid a landscape punctuated by prickly pear cacti and sagebrush 4,000 years ago.’ A pretty neat nod to a pretty cool town—Tucson you saved us during an interminal winter, and we won’t forget your warm hospitality!