Walking the canal bank

Mesa Canal from Flickr

Irrigation ditches and canals are a basic fact of life in the Arizona desert. From the times of the ancient Hohokam Indians to the present, water has been running through our neighborhoods. Walking the canals is an almost daily routine. There are usually wide dirt roads on either side of the canals and there is no vehicular traffic. You can watch the birds, ducks, pigeons, doves and a few humming birds fly over or swim in the canal water. You can also see the fish. There are thousands of huge fish in the bigger canals. I understand that these fish include catfish, bass, trout and the white amur. Another surprising thing is that the sides of the canal roads are partially paved with shells. The bottom of the canals are alive with mollusks.

In the summer in the early morning at 6:00 am it is almost 100 degrees. We walk down to the canal and along the canal road. We say hello to the running bag lady. We watch the running blubber man. We are passed by the running fru-fru lady. All the usual characters are there, including us, I presume. We are probably known as the slow older couple walkers. A lot of the walkers and runners have dogs. Evidence of their passage lines the canal road.

The raised roads next to the canals give walkers and bike riders a distinct perspective -- the backyards and rear lots of homes and businesses. In a lot of cases, the view is not good. It is amazing the amount of trash some people have in their rear yards. For the most part, the trash is kept far away from the canals however, there is seldom so much as a piece of paper along the canals. One exception is water bottles. They seem to pile up in drifts. You also have to ignore the huge amount of dog droppings, but keeping a positive attitude, you can enjoy your walk.

Now, why did I switch from talking about Arizona pioneers to talking about canals? That is simple, the pioneers would never have succeeded in settling this huge desert without water and they got water from canals coming from rivers. In the modern day there is a disconnect, the Central Arizona Project canal that carries water from the Colorado River across the state to somewhere near Tucson. But in the early days canals were a fact of life in Arizona, so much so, that when I go elsewhere and there are no canals or irrigation systems I wonder how the plants live. So it is on to the next chapter in pioneering Arizona, the water projects.