Mixed Rides Photos

These images were collected from two different rides. First was the Grand Boulevard — River Trails loop. I rode it clockwise, and stopped at a park on the east side where the trail crosses over Interstate Highway 44. Aside from a maintenance crew, I had the place to myself. The view is looking northeast.

This is my beloved framing spot below the last dam on the Oklahoma River Reaction District. The water flow is still quite heavy and has been for a few weeks. That means the river downstream looks like a river instead of a trickle. It was louder than the massive flow of Interstate traffic just north of the dam.

Today I rode around Draper Lake. Despite the harsh cold, the crews are back out and working on the bikeway. This is the tail end of the old Westminster Road bed now transformed into a bikeway. It’s almost ready for paving, and I spotted the paver at the other end of the dam. They are building up the trail bed with loads of red clay in a lot of places. In the far background, the bikeway parallels an access road as they both run over a ridge.

This is the unpaved portion of the trail below the dam. The heavy equipment is scraping and shaping the trail so it has drainage on both sides. A lot of dirt will be required at the creek crossing farther off to the right of this image.

I stopped at the persimmon patch and they are now quite ripe. We’ve had several hard freezes. These things are soft and sticky, and quite sweet and not the least bit astringent. On the bikeway there are wild animal droppings full of the big seeds from these things, most likely left by deer.

This is a finished crossing. The road gets all new concrete, while the aprons get bollards to prevent motor traffic entering the bikeway. That is, unless someone has a key to unlock and drop that center bollard.

This is a crossing about half-way done. All this concrete for just a dirt road, but that’s how it’s engineered. The bikeway runs from left and right, parallel to the main Draper Drive in the background.