Tortoise

The rain last night made for a nice cool morning.

Yesterday I saw on the radar and in person that the west side of town was getting pounded by rain. The sky was clear where I was riding in the foothills, but very dark out by the Tucson Mountains.

This morning, a rareity: a bit of water and mud at Starr Pass. The Sentinel Ridge trail was wet enough that we shouldn’t have ridden it. The trails at Starr Pass are a different story. The riding and walking done to the trails are nothing compared to what the monsoons do to them every year.

Coming up through the future Wildcat development I spotted a desert tortoise just inside the park. We tried to walk by gently, but our friend still pulled his head inside his shell. Last year I saw a tortoise in the same area; then, two weeks later I saw it about 200 yards from where I first saw it. I wonder if this was the same one.

There were only a few folks out on the trail, but plenty of brainless drivers out on the road. We had a couple of close calls, a skidding VW bus and even a lady gesturing for us to run the red light (we still don’t know why).

My knee hinted at pain a few times during the ride, so I passed on the Krein trail–saving it for our Mt. Graham trip next week. I cannot wait.