Alright, folks — Okie Bikepacker is the address for my new Substack. The emphasis is tourism via bicycle. You’ll see chatter about biking and my experiences cycling across the state and visiting campgrounds and other places cyclists and hikers can stay. The Substack includes pictures germane to that aim, but here I’ll post the leftover shots that didn’t fit into the posts there.
First up is the River Run Ranch just north of Jones, OK. It caught my eye just as I began the first of several hills on Hogback Road.
I stopped at Wild Horse Creek for an early lunch, since I left home at 0700. If you strain your eyes a bit, you’ll see a sort of green tunnel from which the water emerges, from way back into the foliage a ways. Although the sound of water was nice, I didn’t stay too long because the sun was already starting to get hot and the only shade was in the water itself. I had been on this stretch of Highway 66 several times before, so very little of this trip was actually new until I turned off toward the lake.
This is more or less the center of town for Wellston, OK. There is a good bit more heading back down toward the current main route of Highway 66, but I wanted to see the old original route. It added some distance to the detour around construction, but I thought it was worth it. There were several really old houses, but not all of them were placed for easy photography.
This is the old downtown of Chandler, OK. I would not have seen it had I taken the shortcut both ways. I needed food, so I decided to roll through the old route and see what I could find there. It turned out to be a restaurant with no place to park my bike and a doughnut shop. Since I was burning so many calories, I opted for the latter. It wasn’t too bad, but I kept burping the cinnamon flavoring of the apple fritter for a couple of hours, since I don’t eat that kind of stuff very often.
Not all of the old store fronts are in use. This pair were at the bottom of the hill running out of town, and it’s no longer a good business location. I can see why no one puts a business here. Still, at least the city does what it can to preserve historical structures, even if that doesn’t amount to much. At the very bottom of that hill, there is a sharp turn to the right, and it’s pretty chewed up pavement. I had to swerve my bike out to the center edge of the lane to avoid it. Fortunately, there was no one behind me. Just a couple more businesses and the town fades out.
Last up is this old railroad overpass near Warwick. A handful of other shots didn’t turn out well. I’m really ready for a good camera so I can get better shots of stuff.
Apology: Substack instituted a new default to have people pay some kind of subscription to receive updates. It took me digging awhile to turn that off. You should be able to subscribe now for free.
