The road to nowhere

*yeah* to me. I got myself back up the 3.7 miles to the end of the main Sabino Canyon road. For the most part, it's a gradual uphill, with the last 0.7 miles being a real uphill bitch.

So I sat there at one of the rock benches for a while. I had brought a snack, so I had that with the water I had been carrying in my backpack.

I then did some bird watching. I think I saw a hawk (harris maybe), but I couldn't be sure. It was a big bird, but kept under the trees, making it difficult to identify. Cardinals are neat (especially when the male sits in a palo verde). There were a couple birds I had never seen before, but my Dad might be able to figure them out.

When I was walking back from the trash can, I saw an informational sign that I must have missed the last time I made it up there. Sabino Canyon was built in the mid 1930's as a Depression CCC project. The sign was explaining why the road ends at this place (nowhere). Apparently, the funds ran out after the 3.7 miles, and just abruptly ended. Interesting bit of trivia I suppose.

The good news is that if you make it all the way to the end of the road, it's mostly a downhill trip back. It took me one hour and fifteen minutes to make it to the end, but only one hour and ten minutes to get back to my car.

I ran into a biker at the end of the road. He had a hole in the back tire that went into the tube. He was trying to patch it and reinflate it. Otherwise, it'd be a 3.7 mile walk back with his bike (and he was wearing bicycle shoes). Guess he never got it reinflated because he never did pass me on the trip back. That sucks.