This was a long, narrow trace that started out from home, straight up Henney Road to Wilshire, east to Indian Meridian and all the way up to NE 150th, and then west back to Hiwasee and straight home for a total of 32 miles.
(Click on any thumbnail image for a larger view.)
The ride to Jones on Henney Road is pure routine, as is the part running east on Wilshire to Indian Meridian. This is where the State Center school sits, so named because it is roughly the geographic center of the Oklahoma. On my way north along Indian Meridian, I passed this farm on my right side, sitting on the second flood bank. The foreground is early-stage alfalfa sliced by a drainage drift (shallow ditch) across the field. Just about Hefner Road is the water shed between the North Canadian Valley and the Deep Fork River. It’s a radical difference in the terrain, and the foliage is different, as well.
If you come up with an active sensory heart, you’ll know this is a gentle place, despite the rough ground. The trees waved at me even when there wasn’t much wind. The county doesn’t actually pave the road up here; it’s what we call tack-n-gravel. A couple of trucks run up the packed dirt spraying hot tar followed by more trucks scattering gravel that is captured by the tar. A couple of times like that and you get a thin layer that resembles asphalt. Patching over the years might be hot asphalt, cold asphalt or just more tack-n-gravel. Some sections are a mixture of all three and it’s pretty rough. Since the hills are rather steep and frequent, a cyclist has to keep a close eye on the surface to avoid damaging his wheels.
Way up on NE 150th is about the same place where Hogback Road wanders across our path. This tiny church, appearing to be almost vacant, indicates this was once a community called Douglas.
Now it’s considered part of the outer edge of Luther, OK. This is where I turned left and entered a narrow gauntlet of trees and deep gorges in series. These are all tributaries to Deep Fork, which runs east and west just a couple of miles north. This one on the left is just a sample of what almost all the creeks look like up here.
This one was shallow on the south side and dropped quickly before it even came out from under the bridge.
Farther along this stretch of NE 150th I ran across a mail box marked only with a large “Conoco” sticker, and matching decorations on the trash cart. I stopped at the driveway because the whole area near the gate was packed with every vintage of gasoline pump I have ever seen.
They were scattered among the trees and wild shrubbery, and behind those two containers acting as a fence is a far larger storage area with buildings and sheds. I caught only the faintest glimpse of vast piles of this kind of stuff.
Finally I got back to Hiwasee Road. It’s just a few yards south of Turner Turnpike. This is easily the oldest controlled access route in the state. Though upgraded several times, the only difference between a toll road and any other Interstate Highway is that these turnpikes don’t have a wide grassy meridian strip. It’s just a single stout concrete wall between opposing lanes of traffic.
Just a short way south of this convergence of paved surfaces I found this nice picnic spot at the entrance to what as named “Roundup T Road” — running straight uphill a short way it forms a T with a few expensive houses out in the woods. Just across Hiwasee was this extravagant piece of property festooned with all sorts of communications towers, being one of the highest points of land in the area.
Back in the trees near the peak is a cluster of houses, barns, etc. Glimpses of the far side of that hill indicated more of such beauty.
This time, coming from the north and later in the day, I got some decent shots of the swimming hole where Hiwasee crosses the North Canadian River about where NE 122nd would be. First is a panorama shot facing southward to show how the river bends sharply and runs fairly deep.
Then I came around to the other end of the bridge and took another shot of the beach.
That sand bar stretches far off to the right before it ends, and people occasionally get stuck in the soft sand, since there is a well worn dirt driveway of sorts alongside the bridge that opens on that sand bar. All of this during a time of low water and it’s still deep enough that kids dive off the bridge into it. Bring your own towel.
Farther south is this odd stile over the front fence of a horse farm. The hedgerows are deceptive from the ground. The satellite view from Google Earth is very old, so I found a newer image and made this copy to show how it looks from above.
So I was standing way down in the SE corner of that thing, and it is huge.
The rest we have already seen in other cycling trips and photologs. It was a long ride back to the house on Hiwasee.
