Commute on River Road

Here's what's left of the snow from Mt. Lemmon, now easing its way down the Rilliato River through the heart of Tucson.

I've been commuting on River Rd. to stay off busy Skyline and the traffic. With the Sun making it difficult to see driving a car and riding a bike, taking River Rd offers a safer alternative. I cut over to the River Bike Path for a few miles to miss the busy and dangerous intersetion of Swan and Skyline.


Still a little cold these last few days of February. This peaceful scene will be replaced by my last few miles of busy Swan Ave into the office. Commuters have gone from fairly fast roads going East--now the congestion and a thin bike lane for the cyclists.


I'm riding home in the late afternoon in this photo. I take the bike path as I need a break from the traffic. It is tranquil and I can say about 80 per cent of my commute looks like this on the bike path. This afternoon, I actually saw tourists/cyclists on the bike path. They looked happy and waved to me, being one of the many local bike commuters. Too bad they were going the other way--it would have been fun to find out where thery were from.


A short zig-zag where I go West for about a mile, then cross this bridge and go West. That's Pusch Ridge back there. My morning commute up Ina/Sunrise/Skyline climbs the foothills of the ridge. The road I just mention changes name a few times--basically its much too dangerous to ride that way home Westward. It would be fast of course, but the Sun would be right in your eyes and you wouldn't be able to see anything, like barely the car in front of you.


I found my old LeMond bike cap. It fallen behind the clothes dryer.


This is the intersection of River and La Cholla, looking North. I have to climb about three or four miles to the intersection of Ina and La Cholla--where I have to make a dangerous left turn right in the middle of rush hour traffic. So far, auto drivers have been cool with me working over to the left the get in a position to turn. I have to cross busy lanes but it's worked out that traffic is slowing I there's always somebody who's alert to see that intend to turn left at the light.


One hour and 15 miles later I'm back at the YMCA.