Before leaving Tucson, Karen and Cam needed one more adventure. Both were unable to ride their bikes the past couple of months due to the busy preparations for this trip. They decided that today it was time to test the hardware in Cam's thumb with a bike ride in and around Saguaro National Park. We began what we anticipated to be a 20-25 mile route, but were surprised to find 36+ miles on the odometer by the time we arrived back at our starting point. Unaccustomed to 87 degree heat, and unprepared with adequate water or food for a 2 hour ride, we limped home the last couple of miles of the ride. However, we were encouraged by the beauty of the park, the solace of lightly trafficked roads, and the excitement of discovering Cam can actually ride again (albeit mostly one-handed).
Our start/end venue was the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum. This title was something of a misnomer. It was less a museum and more of a zoo and botanical garden featuring every desert animal and plant imaginable. The highlight was the "Free Flight Raptor Exhibit". Six Harris hawks were released into the wild by their trainers to hunt the open desert while we watched. In the course of their hunt, the birds were often perched mere feet from us, and swooped past within 2-3 inches of our heads as they spotted prey and streaked in for the kill. Harris hawks are unique in that they are the only raptors that live and hunt in groups versus other raptors that exist independently. Eventually, Cam's ever-increasing sunburn encouraged us to leave Tucson and venture two hours north to Scottsdale.
We drove 150 miles today.
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