I’m starting a new series on the blog. My knee is cooperating fairly well so far this year as the riding season starts rather early. I’m hoping to train up to bikepacking rides again. Today’s opening image celebrates the early spring with a shot of henbit covering a large area of the Pecan Grove Park in Midwest City. It’s part of the Barnes Regional Parks system where I train twice each week to keep my knees in shape.
I’ve shown this view of the dam several times. I’m standing near the Eagle Lake Trail which has recently reopened after the construction of a new connection track between two heavily used rail lines on either side of Eagle Lake Park. Over the visual horizon on the left stands the new OKANA Resort; more on that in a moment. The reason the flow of water over the dam is relatively high is because the city is draining a portion of the river upstream for some maintenance work.
The OKANA Resort project is far enough along that I was able to ride on the new bike trail part way behind the hotel. The trail is still blocked while the crews are working on a related project: a pedestrian bridge over the river. In this shot, the crew was doing some final landscaping work to accommodate the ramp up to the bridge. Spectators can stand on the bridge to watch the longer rowing events hosted here. The good new is that I have not been forced to ride along the railroad tracks any more; I can cut across the OKANA property safely as the final bits of construction work wind down. The curse is lifted. OKANA is officially opened now.
When I approach OKANA from the other direction, you can see that the huge memorial mound hides a considerable pile of remaining equipment and supplies from the construction. I still can’t ride through here safely, but I can go around behind it far off to the right of this image. There’s a large grassy field that is open and connects to the paved driveways running through the resort. I’ll keep an eye on this and offer a comparison shot once all this stuff is gone.
Let the training commence!
Interesting slope on the pedestrian bridge photo…the third one. I’ve never seen artificial slopes like that, that lead down to water, here or where I grew up in MA. Unless they are going to build a walking path at the bottom, or steps, etc.
Interesting in hearing your training progress! In my old age (haha) I’ve been getting into folks manage themselves physically.
The slope leading down to the water was there years ago, and I don’t think they are interested in making it easy to get down there.