My host led me on a hike to Ventana Canyon in the Santa Catalina Mountains. Tucson is completely surrounded by mountain ranges and the range to the north is the Santa Catalina Range. The climb starts at an elevation of 2950 feet and we ended at about 4200 feet at the place pictured below. Tucson is in the distance and a dry creek bed cuts through the mountains in the center. We crossed the creek bed several times on the way up. It took us just over three hours for the round trip. Notice the cactus.
There is a sign near the bottom of the trail saying that this is a bighorn sheep management area, but we didn't seen any sheep or, happily, any of those mountain lions or rattlesnakes. There were several nice vistas on the way up (and down) which show the prevalence of saguaro cactus in this part of the world, Cacti are everywhere. During the 3 hours on the trail we ran into 25 other hikers, by our actual count. We had a short discussion with a group of four hikers who were discussing their common home base - Minnesota. Stillwater and Rochester, I believe. It must have been Minnesota Day at Ventana Canyon today.
Because there has been some interest in the bike that I rode yesterday in Saguaro National Park, I have included a photo of the lender and the bike that I rode. Also pictured is a yucca tree, I believe, and Raggedy Andy. I had some difficulty with the shift mechanism until I got used to it, but, what the hay, no one got hurt. The borrowed helmet is not pictured.
After the hike we came back to the Stebbins Hotel, a place with great service and quite good food for dinner and to get ready for some tennis. I actually made my second batch of five bean salad in the five days since my arrival on Thursday. It's pretty popular with the host. And I must say he makes a mean grilled salmon as demonstrated last night for dinner.
Tennis went pretty well. I played three sets and managed to be on the winning team in two of them. The schedule for the tournament has been posted. We play matches beginning at 11 a.m. on Friday at Randolph Park Courts. My first match is at 3:30 at the same site. The fat is in the fire.
