I once rode in 112°F temps. I learned that you have to ride slower than normal, but be careful not to stop without shade, and stay hydrated. In order to make my rides right now, I have to leave at sunrise so I can get back before it gets too hot. Thus, there was no way I could keep my shadow out of this shot. It’s the Grand Boulevard Trail as one approaches Trosper Park. Off to the right in the underbrush once stood a very popular BMX race track. It fell into disuse, and then rain and weeds took it apart.
When the nearby new Cesar Chavez School was opened, a lot of nice landscaping was added to this section of the trail. There’s at last one spot where teachers can sit in the shade to take a smoke break, since smoking is forbidden on the actually school grounds. Just a hundred yards farther down this trail, it suddenly turns into an ugly run-down suburban look where it crosses the railroad tracks. The bike path becomes a sidewalk that makes no accommodation whatsoever for crossing the tracks safely. It just drops off into the gravel on one side, and jumps back up on the other side, no less than 6 inches on each side. Nice.
I felt like testing the camera’s ability to handle looking directly at the sun. I think it turned out rather well. This is the view from the South River Trail looking toward Downtown OKC. Somehow the sun is filtered heavily, yet the sun’s reflection on the water still shows up well.
This was a similar experiment (below), with the sun behind trees. The camera did pretty well with keeping the contrast between the dappled sun light and the shadows of the trees. This is the view toward the Shields Boulevard bridge over the North Canadian River (AKA, OK River rowing area).
This is the real story for the day (below): catastrophic low water level in the North Canadian River. Only a tiny trickle comes through a small pipe, so the water in the river bottom is mostly stagnant. It smells pretty bad, of course. This is part of the drought conditions for Central Oklahoma. The cranes are doing okay, but the fish are not.
