don't go off the trail

All this, and more!
Notice the first aide kit...

Leonard called over his shoulder this recommendation as we started on a new loop in the Fantasy Island trail system in Tucson. Soon, I knew why: if I didn't keep my speed down, I'd go barreling into one of the hundreds of cacti that lined the singletrack. The trail twisted left, then right and left again.

Prickly pear, barrels and others whose names I don't yet know were just feet apart.

Despite the feeling of emptiness in the desert, we encountered a few of these rabbits.

When we finished riding all the loops we wanted, I looked at my odometer: 24 miles! How the trail designers made a system this extensive on a piece of desert said to be less three square miles gives me hope for the potential mileage we can tease out of the project on the Anchorage Hillside.

Of course this trail has little elevation change except where it dips in and out of the rock-filled washes or rises to a low viewpoint. I think I could ride this trail system many times and not get bored. But a guide to cacti would be helpful, along with some Slime for my tubes.