Tucson – Ventana canyon trail, Maynard’s kitchen, sabino canyon trail, La Frita

A pack (?) of javelinas greeted us as we walked to Ventana Canyon Trailhead yesterday. Fortunately they were behind a fence in the woods and when they saw us they ran away. Not attractive animals. Like black-grey hairy pigs.

We did a longer hike this time, making it almost all the way to the top of the canyon, for spectacular views from on-high of Tucson below. We made it to just-before the second to top X (“top of ridge overlook”) The last bit was difficult, switchbacks on steep ridges with rocks and boulders to navigate. (“Sweaty steep climbing and rock stepping” according to the map) Glad I had my trusty rented hiking pole and dirck’s outstretched hand!

Another fancy dinner, this one at Maynard’s kitchen in the train depot downtown. Fun to watch the trains rumbling slowly past as we ate steak, duck, Brussel sprouts, and local greens with lardons. All excellent. The next-door bar looked good too with charcuterie boards in a train depot decor. We wandered across the street to the Hotel congress and wandered around. Not much happening on a Sunday night, even on st Patrick’s day weekend. The outdoor plaza looks like a fun space for music.

Today we returned to sabino canyon, this time wisely booking our shuttle ticket the night before. It was busy, even on a Monday. Lots of families on spring break.

We took the shuttle tour to the end of the line, stop 9, and then hiked 2.5 miles on sabino canyon trail, a spectacular trail along a ridge high in the canyon. We could hear rushing water way below and finally saw it on occasion way off in the distance. Good Beyond bread sandwich to split on trail (they’re huge): turkey, cheddar, bacon.

We soon figured out why there was a 50 minute for dinner at La Frida (as in Kahlo) on Monday night. The food is very inventive, unlike any Mexican fare we’ve had before. First we tried costilla de elote, which was like eating corn spareribs, gnawing the corn off long fried strips of mexican street corn on the cob, marinated in Serrano sauce (Serrano peppers, cilantro, lime, crumbly white cotija cheese?). New to us although I’ve had whole corn cob elote.

Sauces are the big thing at the restaurant and the server brought us four to try, then we ordered the entree with our favorite sauce: fritaditas — pulled pork gorditos with guacamole. The bed of black bean sauce was the best part. The pork carnitas atop one of the three gorditos was almost all fat (ew) but the other two were delicious. The gordito itself (a toasted Mexican flour cake) is not my favorite, sort of a fat, doughy version of a pastry shell/English muffin.