Anatomy of Hog Creek, Part 1

This was one hard ride, not because of the distance, but because chasing Hog Creek meant climbing more hills, and more brutal hills, than I normally see in a single ride.

A word about online mapping services: You probably know about Google Maps. If I give you a direct URL on that service — the starting point — you could probably find it just fine. However, nothing in the various GMaps system would indicate that this was the source of Hog Creek, as it seldom chases any water course that far. On the other hand, Open Street Maps does a much better job of pulling in the various official survey maps. As you might expect, every inch of Oklahoma’s water courses have been surveyed and the accurate data is included. So if I give you this link, you won’t get the option for satellite view or Street View, but you’ll see how the surveyed starting point for Hog Creek is clearly shown. You could poke around on that webpage and find a “layers” feature that allows you to select a bicycle map, and that includes the altitude survey lines. You would see that this location is a hilltop. But I can’t leave markers for you to see precise points. If it matters, you can open both links in separate browser tabs and try to follow along.

(Click on any thumbnail image for a full-sized view.)

It was five miles to this point. In our first image, I’m standing at the corner of SE 54th and Mystic Place. That cul-de-sac is the primary rain catch for the source of Hog Creek, the main branch as noted on official mapping sources. From here, it runs south of SE 44th for several miles, than drops southeast from about SE 44th and Hiwasee Road over toward Choctaw Road somewhere between SE 89th and SE 104th, where it joins it’s own West Branch. That’s as far as I went in this episode, attempting to take pictures without violating access restrictions. Much of it crosses private land, and in some places the foliage is too dense. In fact, foliage is a bigger problem than fences, for the most part.

I rode back out to Post Road and headed north to SE 44th. Here’s an image of rusting ancient car bodies (left), and I managed to catch only about half of what was there. They are visible on Google’s Street View. I once knew the fellow how lived there forty years ago, and this would be typical of him. We weren’t exactly friends, so I’m not stopping to find out. Instead, I continued east to the entrance of Kennington housing development and turned in, wandering all over the place to catch glimpses of Hog Creek, but nothing was suitable for the camera. This area merges with Brook Hollow and I managed to exit out on Westminster Road.

So this image (right) is viewing back west from Westminster Road. Behind me the creek runs through dense foliage across more than a mile of private property. This area is densely forested and there are no vistas from any of the streets and roads that run through this section. That meant heading back up Westminster, over the interstate highway and along SE 44th on the other side for some serious razorback ridges. At Anderson I turned back south and just out from under I-40 is the next crossing.

The water course is not actually visible (left), but this gives some idea of how it runs mostly eastward to meet I-40 and cross under. The heavy trees along the left side across the open field are on the creek bank. That field is somewhat swampy.

Riding back under the interstate and up Anderson Road, we come to Sherwood Avenue running up off to the right. It’s a nice climb and then a quick drop down into the valley where Sherwood Mobile Home Park (one of the few independent parks in this area) hugs Hog Creek just off I-40. I suppose you’d have to get used to the constant highway noise, but this is where Hog Creek starts to look downright nice. While the ridges on either side do get pretty high very early, here they are quite close. This image (right) views south along the creek back where it crosses under the interstate. The park captures a nice pond from the flow. The creek runs through dense foliage and comes back out into the open about a half-mile to east, but it’s a much longer ride to see it.

So I headed back north the SE 44th again and took some more razorback ridges. Any land near Hog Creek is always hilly because it cuts a deep valley. On your left here we see where it emerges in the far back of the image, while a tributary joins it from our right. There are several lagoons here and I have no idea what for, but this is a lovely view. This is a case where I had to find a spot where the roadside foliage allowed me to see the open area. The creek runs to the left.

I walked just a few feet past the cattle guard to catch this shot (right) not far from the previous. I headed south on Hiwasee and stopped just short of the creek, so it runs from our right and this view is SE, just barely showing the steep ridges on both sides in the background. From here it runs across some private ranch land until we see it emerge near the intersection of Henney Road and SE 59th. I am unable to get a clear view to shoot back toward where this image was taken.

Part way up the climb on SE 59th toward Choctaw Road, there is this one open spot in the foliage where we can look back SW to see the ridge on the other side (left). Here the creek runs under trees all the way from SE 59th toward the interstate again. Pedaling up the high ridges to Choctaw Road, I headed south in heavy traffic and tried to see if I could spot it from the Love’s Truck Stop property. They built on a high spot, but they have a water treatment facility on the backside (west) and this hides the creek from view, way down in the bottom. On the other side of I-40, the Pilot Truck Stop is surrounded by high trees.

So I had to wait until I could wind my way through another ritzy housing development, Deerfield Estates. While the creek remains obscured by galleria trees, I got a shot (right) showing how it divides this bunch of McMansions from another (Deerfield West), yet it’s at least a five-mile drive between them because of how the interstate and segmented roads interfere. I’m told they plan to have at least a pedestrian bridge soon.

A little farther south on Choctaw Road at SE 89th, there is a ragged end running west a short ways. I found a high spot with a view through the trees (left). Just beyond the web-worm infested foliage you can barely make out the course of Hog Creek running almost a straight line from the right side. The far ridge divides between the main branch and the West Branch coming in from the distant center.

It’s pretty hard to see the confluence where West Branch joins, but this was the best I could do. The high embankment and foliage make it hard to see and I climbed up against the billionaire’s fancy fence to get this angle from across Choctaw Road. The two branches join in the middle ground just below and left of that barn in the background. That’s all for this ride, because it was another six miles back to the house.

When I get around to it, the next episode will be tracing West Branch Hog Creek up to this point.