Mixed Ride Photos

These are collected shots from Monday’s ride around Draper Lake and Tuesday’s ride on the River Trails. First up is the window shadow effect from the dam at Draper. The long slope compresses the air and increases the wind velocity as it crosses the dam. The water closest to the dam is shielded from the wind, so the water is quite smooth there.

These persimmons are ready, but not ripe. We haven’t had a single frost yet, so they are still ripening very slowly. The flavor is very good, but still too astringent. However, this year has been very bad for wild fruit in general, and these persimmons have an unusually high proportion of seeds to flesh, so it’s almost a waste of effort.

Here’s where the bikeway crosses a road that has been closed for 20 years or so. I realize it’s difficult to see the path running off in the distance because it’s covered in our red mud, but after laying asphalt for the bikeway, the crews then tore it up and laid a heavy concrete apron at the crossing. Just off the end of the apron on the left, the road is almost unusable by any motor vehicle. Rules are rules, I guess.

I noticed this striking red-headed grass planted along the canal portion of the River Trails. This waterway runs to a cul-de-sac at the passenger dock for boat rides that are available only rarely right now. This is the grass’s fall color display.

I noticed on the south bank that city crews had been doing the preparatory work to extend the River Trails to the Eagle Lake Trail. At this stage, they are laying crushed (reclaimed) asphalt in bad spots. Here they had to dig down and repair something on the culverts running under the route. After they got it covered in crushed asphalt, a sink hole opened up. Good quality work, no? It’s been raining too much for them to come back out and try again.

Indeed, it has been one of the wettest autumns we’ve had in a very long time. All the dams along the North Canadian River have been letting water flow. To be honest, this river suffers severely from water capture, and it’s quite rare to see much of any depth flowing along the bottom. It’s typically a trickle most of the year. This image is at the last dam on the River Recreation area near Downtown OKC, where Eastern Avenue runs over the river.