Today is a rather long trek over two different official bike trails. But it’s about ten miles just getting to the starting line of the first one. If this works out, I’ll ride straight west on SE 29th to the Tinker Diagonal and generally follow some varied surfaces that will take us all the way up to Reno Avenue and around onto Grand Boulevard. The Grand River Trail this all the way across town, up a few miles north and into the Oklahoma River Trail. We follow the south bank as far as we can go, given that the far end is still under some development. The final trail is mapped and named Eagle Lake Trail, but we’ll have to wait and see if it’s open for our passage. If so, we can get right back to the start of the Grand Boulevard Trail where I can retrace my route home again. In all it should be around 40 miles of fairly flat riding, over half on purpose-built cycling routes.
I’m torn about starting way early in the morning when it’s cooler, because the traffic will be heavy. By leaving closer to 8AM, it’s already down, but it means facing more of the mid-day heat. I chose the latter option.
I won’t recount all the details of the first few miles westbound. Once I got to the big shopping center outside the main gate of Tinker AFB, I followed the service roads for I-40. Starting from that gate, the interstate follows a near-straight diagonal path across a three-by-two mile rectangle where it intersects with I-35 — a section officially called the Tinker Diagonal. That western end is also very close to where I need to go for the Grand Boulevard Trail, so I stay on the north side road all the way up to SE 15th. I’m not sure anyone can explain why the service road forces you onto the interstate at that point, but I simply turned left on SE 15th until I got the Del City Library.
On the other hand, I have heard through academic channels that somewhere along this section of Crutcho Creek, construction crews stumbled into a minor cache of Native American artifacts. The area is in or near Ray Trent Park. That was probably back in the 1960s and politics have changed a lot since then. So while no one has the money to do a proper archaeological dig, the place is quietly protected from any further construction digging. Any development plans are restricted to the top foot or so of soil.
So once I pass under the highway at Crutcho Creek, it’s just a short run across a bit of grass to get back onto the service road and ride all the way to Reno Avenue. Less than a quarter mile along Reno is the turn onto the old Grand Boulevard heading south. We take a jog around the historic Townley’s Dairy plant and follow the twisting Grand to the far eastern end of the Grand Boulevard Trail. I recommend you not park here to ride the trail unless you leave a guard. Transients of highly varying morals like to camp near here.
Grand Boulevard Trail from the east
About a century ago the OKC management planned Grand Boulevard to circle the city somewhat near the boundary lines. It was a big curving loop. Since then, several sections have disappeared under highways and then later highways on top of those. What’s left has served to confuse the heck out of people unfamiliar with the city layout, because long sections are scattered all over town and the labeling follows no obvious pattern any more, unless you can make out the quadrants of NW, NE, SE and SW. This southern section remains mostly intact and curves nicely from around the eastern end of the complex junction between I-40 and I-35, down and across some decent neighborhoods at roughly SE 36th, turning into SW 36th, then heading north up along I-44. We won’t trace Grand any farther, leaving it for the path along the Canadian River.
The first three miles or so cross either fallow terrain or pass by some very old industrial facilities, mostly related to petroleum drilling or construction. It’s actually rather quiet and desolate on the trail itself, despite crossing some busy thoroughfares along the way. Just short of SE 29th, we are shoved over to the other side of Grand just as we pass the biggest OKC Animal Shelter. Across SE 29th we begin curving back westward around the backside of Trosper Park. The place is a little rough around the edges because this park is a favorite haunt for those dealing in illegal vices of various sorts, mostly the kind without victims. It remains pretty quiet until we get around to I-35, which is pretty much an artificial canyon below the natural terrain level. Once across that, it’s much more parklike for the next few miles. This is where the old Grand Boulevard remains divided by a narrow greenbelt of sorts.
The city fathers have been spending money along this route to remove what folks call “blight,” but it’s mostly about rousting gangs. It was about this point I realized I probably looked a lot like OKC Police Bike Patrols, with my black long-legged shorts and pale gray t-shirt, and black cycling helmet. I thought the locals were acting a little odd until I realized what they must have thought they were seeing. At any rate, a mile west the trail runs out because that section of Grand was never widened. You can take the sidewalk on the south side, but the street is a designated bikeway and faded white stencils on the pavement are still just visible. The route widens again about a half-mile later on the other side of the ever-busy Shields Boulevard, right about the time we hit Lightening Creek.
During rain storms this place gets a lot of mention. So much of it runs through concrete canyons that, as you might expect, kids play in it and think all the extra water is so much fun on a hot summer day. But this last few storms was enough to washout even the bike path. A large section of asphalt was floated out its bed and pushed aside.
Farther along, I suppose the city planners couldn’t find an easy way to cross Western Avenue, which is the single busiest north-south artery out here on Southside. Thus, whether you dismount or not, you are forced to use pedestrian accommodations to get across. On the other side the original extra-wide concrete sidewalk from way-back-when obviates the need for a separate bike path. It runs like that for a mile or so. Eventually the newer asphalt trail shows up again and takes us all the way across May Avenue and into yet another decent spot, Woodson Park. The city began revamping and renewing these facilities a while back, so it’s not too bad. The trail runs around the backside next to I-44, then abruptly turns left and up a very steep overpass.
Hit the brakes coming down because it’s a sharp right on the other side. We pick up the bike path more or less on the old Grand route, cutting back across SW 29th and chasing another wide sidewalk back onto a street actually named Grand. Take advantage of the hill and don’t slow down; at the bottom is a genuine rough neighborhood. Not everyone is a thug, but there are a greater density of troublesome folks here than in most places. When a sidewalk reappears on the right, grab that ramp because this saves us a big detour at SW 15th. You have to yield, but it’s a straight shot down a nice bike path while viewing the splendor of Dell’s OKC Campus on your left. Their computers suck less than most others, so I tend to prefer them. This campus is a customer phone support center and that’s where they suck. I run Linux on my Dells. In the picture you can see where the far western end of the Grand Boulevard Trail ends at the OK River Trail.
Oklahoma River Trail
The OK River project goes like this: The North Canadian River was tamed, widened and given heavy rip-rap sides. It now consists of a pair of very long navigable lakes right downtown OKC. There is a sort of dam at the west end near where I got on the trail — a trail that is mostly mirrored on the north bank. There is another dam about half-way down. This first section is for motorized boats mostly. The second section is all about that human-powered boating stuff. You’ll ride quite a ways east before you see it, following a few bends in the river. Down on the right side is a picture of the Devon Boathouse; it quickly became a major rowing competition site and they aren’t through with it, yet.
Staying along the south bank, you will encounter a number of spotter’s towers for the races. Before this was all fancied up, the trail ended right about the 1000 meter mark. You could roll down a dirt road a short distance under I-35 and find a locked gate on the other side. However, I’m told riders have found the gate open rather often, now that maintenance crews have to access the spotters towers farther down. That’s how I found it today and rode the dirt road all around behind the as-yet unfinished American Indian Cultural Center and Museum (often referred to unofficially as the Heritage Center). This is pretty much what you might see because not much has been done in two years.
Eagle Lake Trail
This dirt road runs right into the new Eagle Lake Trail, so we get a free bonus. It drops under Eastern Avenue and stays relatively close to the south bank of the North Canadian. Near the lake you get to run a large loop under a bridge and around to cross it over the substantial Crooked Oak Creek. If you look at the maps, you’ll see it’s just a couple of miles along the trail to Eagle Lake, a very old oxbow lake that officials reinforced with a huge dike for recreational use. It’s in the far northwest corner of Del City, and pretty ordinary as lakes go.
This was reasonably close, just a half-mile, from where I started the Grand Boulevard Trail, so it was a nice clean finish to the exploratory portion of the ride. The main entrance to Eagle Lake is on Reno right near Scott Street where I could easily drop back down to the Tinker Diagonal. Aside from taking a slightly different route avoiding the main thoroughfares, it looked to be a pretty boring and hot ten miles home, but I was waylaid for a birthday luncheon at the Chili’s in that huge shopping area outside Tinker. It provided a good rest and respite for the final six miles home.
In all, about five hours riding time to cover a little over 40 miles.
That was quite a ride. We have very few bike trails in my town, but part of the Mountains to Sea trail runs through our town along a 30 mile span called the Neuse River Trail. Hikers and bikers use this route all the time between Clayton and Raleigh. However, once you get close to Raleigh, the trail is inhabited by very unsavory characters that have no qualms about hurting or robbing you.
Aside from the areas where the housing was dense, almost anywhere I rode yesterday you could find some evidence of temporary residency. Most of it was the harmless folks who don’t care much for the system, or simply don’t have a place in it. The more threatening folks generally avoid large healthy males, of course. Even more so when it happens I resembled a bike cop. Still, I doubt there’s much market in escort biking.
Ha! I don’t know….. IF I were to ever want to cycle, an escort would be most welcome!
Sheesh, the worst we have to worry about on our trail is bears. Which is pretty bad I suppose.