Photo Log 1: Biking SE OK County

Background: Oklahoma was surveyed in a square-mile grid. From what I understand, the surveyors simply cut a straight line path between corners, and locals kept using that path they cut, which eventually saw improvements in some places. So most of the backroads in Oklahoma are laid out in that same mile-square grid and we call them “section lines.”

Southeastern Oklahoma County is hilly. At least a couple of times I pedaled over a crest that would have given you a roller-coaster sensation at the legal speed limit in a motor vehicle. It’s a good workout. Today’s route was the Draper Lake Loop. From my home it’s about seven miles to the lake, about thirteen miles around the lake, and another seven miles back. However, I decided to take a detour of a couple of miles to capture this image of a washout. I have no idea where the filmy ghost came from, but you can still see that there is no way past this mess.

If you want to follow along in this journey, open a browser tab to your favorite mapping service and see if they can show you Tinker AFB. I live about four miles east of the north end of the airbase, and Draper Lake is directly south, under the flight path. I approached the lake on SE 74th and headed south on Post Road. This simply turns into one of the few curved roads in the area, that which rings the lake. This put me on the northeast corner of the lake area and I headed straight south.

Because of the heavy rains, the berries are quite large. The eastern side of the lake is dense with them, visible all along the road. If you took off through the woods, you would see them in pockets where the soil is sandy. However, you would also be eaten alive by chiggers and deer ticks.
Even the sand plums, usually no bigger than the end of my thumb, are quite large this year. This one growing over a drain culvert was bigger and better tasting than I’ve found in years past. Plum bushes usually grow into small trees clustered together thickly. You can’t walk through them easily because they all sport very long thorns.

The lake is pretty full after all the heavy spring rains this year. This was taken on the west end of the dam. The lake is fed by streams mostly on the north side, which is about the only hilly part of the lake ring road.

The longest arm of the lake chases a low valley that runs up toward Tinker. There’s a spot there where the water easily comes up over the road and the bed is slowly dissolving. This year the asphalt is badly broken. Since they are rebuilding the roads elsewhere around the lake, I suspect they’ll have to replace that section before summer is out.

Once I got around the entire loop, it’s time to head home. You can see the strangest things out on these hilly back roads.

Someday the various city governments and the county hope to join Draper Lake by bike path to the one that now runs down both sides of the Canadian River downtown. Various segments have been built already. This path runs west of the lake for a mile or so, but the next section is three miles away. Maybe some day I’ll get a decent camera.

Come ride with me!