I got a new launchpad for my drone. You don’t need one if you are launching from a hard surface but if you are on grass dirt it helps to have one to avoid damage to the drone’s propellers. Mine is about 24 inches square which is plenty big. The few times I have launched out in the wild it is hard to get away from grass, twigs, pebbles, and dirt.
From about 20 meters up.
So I checked it out in the backyard. Usually I launch from the patio but the metal in the furniture messed with the drone’s gps so I was always having to calibrate it.
at 40 meters, my usual flying distance.
I almost always fly from my backyard in “periscope mode.” I go straight up and then look around. I don’t fly around looking at stuff. Legally I can do it but in a subdivision I don’t think it is too neighborly to fly over somebody else’s property.
The view to the southwest. That’s the neighborhood elementary school to the left.
A week and a half ago, late on a Sunday afternoon, I went on a hike at Oxley Nature Center’s North Woods area. I love the North Woods area because it is beautiful, the trails are well maintained and hardly anybody besides me goes there even on a nice weekend afternoon.
It’s kind of a walking meditation.
Be careful while you are meditating and walking though. This thing will give you a headache.
The staff and volunteers are always tweaking and improving things on the trails.
It’s got water views and benches.
And what I call tree tunnels cutting through the woods. I love to come here when it is windy like it was on my hike. The woods are thick so there is no wind on the ground but you can hear the wind as it moves through the tops of the trees.
Later on in the spring, the reflections will be prettier.
I was hoping to see deer, not today!
And the end.
I try and go on all the trails during my visits to the North Woods. That entails taking some of the trails twice. That’s alright.
About a week and a half ago, on a sunday on the final day of Oklahoma’s spring break I went to Turkey Mountain for a hike. Spring break means busy!! So I started at the very northwest end of Turkey Mountain at the YMCA. No crowds there!!! Just badge in, if you are a member, or pay a small day fee and go.
I saw more people than usual but many less than if I had gone to the main Turkey Mountain parking lots. The Y’s trails and Turkey Mountain’s interconnect.
I was looking for some structures built by the mountain bikers maybe about 20 years ago plus or minus. They made some pretty incredible biking structures. They are in ruins now.
Back in the day, Turkey Mountain was a no mans land. Did these guys and gals get permission and permits and submit plans and such. Nope they just brought a bunch of lumber out and built it, and experimented and modified as time went by. Them mountain bikers are a hardy bunch. When a call goes out for help on a trail work day they show up in droves ready to work. Hikers and trailrunners not so much.
I found a pipeline owned by one of my previous employers. Companies wouldn’t build in such a manner these days. Boring technology has got so good they would just bore under it. They now bore way under archeological sites now. Solves all sorts of problems with mitigation and such.
And then Pepsi Lake. Pepsi Bottling company had a bunch of truck chassis’s on the dam and Turkey Mountain people called and asked if they could move them and away they went in a couple of days. Nobody knows why they were there to begin with.
The Mexican Plum blooms were out.
From there I went just north to Mooser Creek. It forms the northern boundary of Turkey Mountain. The Turkey Mountain people say that Mooser Creek is how beavers get to and from Turkey Mountain.
So here is looking north from Mooser Creek. This used to be the main entrance to Turkey Mountain back in the day. I used to park there every now and the but Pepsi has kind of taken it over. This another mystery of Turkey Mountain. Nine years ago a couple hikers found a human skull right where I was standing to take this photo. The police said that it had probably been there two years or so. Whenever I am in this area I always expect that I’ll find a rib or something. Not today though.
What I did though was notice that the pipeline company had cleared their right of way on the south side of Mooser Creek headed east. So I walked down it. I had never been down that way before. First thing was I saw this bicycle basket hanging from a tree.
And evidence of busy beavers. The area was more expansive than I had thought. Lots of evidence of old homeless camps.
Got as far as I could go without swimming. The hairs on the back of my head were standing straight up and although it was a pretty scene I retraced my steps back.
Later on in the hike I went on the top of the cliffs. This is a photo of all the trucks at the Pepsi Bottling Plant. It is a huge facility.
And then later on passed again the deep hole in the ground with the camo ductwork coming out. Who knows what you would find down there. There have been other deep holes found on the mountain. Speculation is that people were digging for Spainish gold. Apparently there was a guy back in 70’s selling treasure maps.
And I found this downed electric pole out in the middle of nowhere. Way back when the mountain had small ranches and farms on it and a lot of oil wells. People lived up there and it had a quite an outlaw reputation with moonshine stills and such.
I also found this hole lined with rock. I have no explanation. It would take a lot of work to build this. Tulsa gets so much rain that any hole you dig is going to be quite muddy much of the year.
And right next to it was this foundation. I don’t have a clue what it is for.
And not far away found this thing that looked almost like a burial marker. I didn’t turn it over. I was afraid I would see an inscriptions kind of like, “Here lies the body of a nosey photoblogger..”
And then I went back to the Y. I only covered 2.9 miles but I saw a lot of stuff.
One of my favorite hiking spots close to Tulsa is Lake Bixhoma. The lake is a water supply lake for the city of Bixby and it has some very rugged land around it. I’ve never circumnavigated the lake because the trail is rugged and the upriver side of the is almost always under water.
The first bit of trail is actually paved. There is actually picnic grounds and restrooms and such but all that is abandoned now. I am thinking that part of the reason for the abandonment is rockfalls off the cliff. Here is recent fall.
Still the first part of the trail is walkable.
Here is some of the abandoned infrastructure.
After the picnic grounds the trail is no longer paved although still not too bad.
And then it got very technical. Too me technical means lots of rocks.
Got to the upper end of the lake. Can’t cross here!
So I followed the creek up and found a couple of possible crossing spots. If it hadn’t been so cold and if I hadn’t been alone and over a mile from the trailhead, then I could have done one of these, maybe. About here is where I saw my first snake for the year. Some sort of water snake that slipped into the water quickly as I approached. I don’t think it was anything I would worry about.
Here is the other crossing. Going further upstream was out of the question because it is private property. So I turned around and headed back.
I am always amazed at the stuff I see on trails. What in the world is the story behind this? I can only guess.
I hate out and back hikes so when I came to this fence corner and saw a trail going up the hill, off I went. I figured I knew where I would be going. Famous last words right.
I found this trail sign that I couldn’t read.
The trail got a little rough.
I found me some spectacular trees though. And I made it back to the car. My shortcut saved me about 0.2 miles I figured.
So kind of a short hike but I had a good time. When things dry out a little more, and get warmer, I’ll be back. I will probably try the other way around the lake.
The skies were mainly gray I know but I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.
Toward the last of February we had a warm spell here in Tulsa so I decided to forego the gerbil activity at the gym and get the old bike, air up the tires and head out on the Riverparks trails.
I went from the south end clear to the north end without stopping so the Bear Fountain pic above was where I started and this pic of downtown Tulsa is at the north end.
I turned 90 degrees from the above pic. We have lots and lots of homeless people here in Tulsa. It is sad and getting worse.
And then I headed back south. I stopped at lots of these sculptures to check them off my warmarking list. Check out waymarking.com. It’s a gps enabled hobby kind of like geocaching.
Went on another hike on Turkey Mountain. Right at the trailhead I saw this handsome bad boy. A Toyota Tacoma pickup heavy duty everything including a snorkel for the engine, beefed up bumper up front with extra lighting, tires that cost a mint. A very nice rig. And look the tires have a little dirt on them. Most overlanders I see are spotless.
The skies were gray on Sunday afternoon. That’s okay, I’ll take whatever kind of sky there is as long as the trails are not muddy.
Turkey Mountain has lots and lots of rocks!!
And lots of ponds. I learned something last year during a wildlife tour. The ponds are stocked every year with fish, which is great. Also, there is an active beaver population on the mountain but they are not spread out to all the ponds. They pretty much stay at one pond until they eat all the fish and then they travel overland to another pond to eat its fish. For some reason I think that is hilarious.
I used a combination of the new fancy trails and the some of the smaller, less known legacy trails. I was kind of hoping that I would see some deer but I did not.
Here is a smaller trail with some heavy duty rock armoring to prevent erosion. I think the people that run Turkey Mountain are shifting over to some smaller trails to accommodate those of us who like to travel on foot.
The trees are wild without their leaves. I love the trees in any of the season.
Here is a new windy trail that I encountered while heading back to the parking lot. I got a ways then oops, I found out it was not open yet. My bad. I try and follow all the rules.
Back at the parking lot at the trail head. Everybody had gone home and it started misting. I love weather like this.
Here is my route. The inner loop is where I hoped to find deer. I’ve learned that when there are not too many people, the deer will move north along the center of the circle. Not that day though!!
All told, despite the gray skies, I had a lovely time.
Went for a walk on Presidents Day around Tulsa’s Lafortune Park. It is a little over 3 miles around so it is perfect for a walk or a run or whatever you want to do. The trail winds around two golf courses, a tennis center, a library, a playground, and some little league baseball fields so there is a lot going on.
It has several ponds which make for great reflections when the sky is decent.
The trees near water make for great reflections.
Trees in the winter can be spectacular.
Ditto
The library has a hip modern design, but it was closed. You can get their wifi in the parking lot though. They started that during covid. That was handy.
And a Bonus!!
I got a new cell phone that I am still “messing with.” I took this shot the other day in my front yard. A crescent moon, with Jupiter nearby, and Venus underneath. The moon is kind of fuzzy but I am still okay with it.
I was invited to a press conference a week or so ago. It was by the Tulsa River Parks Authority, the folks who manage the Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area, to announce that they received a large grant ($2.1 million) from Oklahoma’s Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, (“TSET”) to build more trails on Turkey Mountain.
So Riverparks authority execs and TSET board members showed up along with some Tulsa County bigwigs as well as board members of the Tulsa Urban Wilderness Coalition. And of course the media was there with cameras and drones. So we had some short speeches and the ceremonial presentation of the oversize check. It was interesting and I’m all about more money for improvements such as trails for Turkey Mountain.
The yellow trails are the phase one trails. I’ve been on all of them!!
TSET is an interesting entity. It is funded as a result of a huge lawsuit that that Oklahoma and a bunch of other states filed against the tobacco companies back in the late 1990’s. There was a Master Settlement in 1998 where the four largest tobacco companies agreed to pay the states an annual fee. Oklahoma puts the money in a trust to fund various health related programs such as the trails at Turkey Mountain. Read the details here.
So after the presentations and the individual interviews RiverParks took everybody on a hike to look at the new staircase up the mountain.
It’s about 130 feet long with a 100 of vertical elevation. The tour only went up halfway. Then the all the VIP’s went back down the trail.
It was said during the hike that the 100 feet of elevation change represents 300 million years of time. This was all the bottom of the ocean at one time..
Me? I’m a retired guy, I came to the press conference with my hiking boots and water bottle. I went the rest of the way up and took a little hike.
Turned right at the top of the stairs and went a short way to an overlook over south Tulsa and the Arkansas River.
And then headed north for a short loop.
This Christmas tree is on the blue trail and yet has no blue ornaments! What’s up with that. I am going to remember to bring a sack and take all this down. Nothing ages faster than ornaments outdoors.
Earlier this week, I wanted to go hiking on Turkey Mountain but decided to do it a little differently. I started from the Herman and Kate Kaiser YMCA on the northwest side of the mountain. I’ve been in lots of races there and a few events but never just parked in their parking lot and went hiking from their trails (which intersects with all the other trails on the mountain.)
So I checked in at the lodge and headed off by Lake Logan and the dam that forms the lake.
I got a nice view of the lodge across the lake.
And headed down the faint trail to the northl.
It eventually merged into the bigger trails that the Riverparks Authority is installing.
I always love the wild trees on Turkey Mountain.
The new trails are designed for and popular with the mountain bikers. Lots of up and down and side to side.
Eventually I got off the new trail and onto a legacy trail. This part of the park was cleared out by the previous owners when they were trying to get Simon Outlet Malls to buy it. By the way, Simon Malls announced, for the the third or fourth time, that they are restarting construction on the site they bought when they encountered so much opposition to buying a piece of Turkey Mountain.
Got to my destination on 61st street. The last work day we had a group went and made a small length of trail to get to the street so that the bikers could go through there, onto the streets for a ways, and then to another park with brand new trails. The only thing better than trails is interconnected trails is my motto. And then it was time to head back.
I came across this scene which is wall about what an Urban Wilderness means. That is downtown Tulsa off in the distance.
Part of an old road. Turkey Mountain used to have an oil field on it along with farms, ranches, and moonshiner stills.
A sign that we are back on the Y property.
Uh, don’t ask me!
And I had a good hike, about two and a half miles. But one more thing.
We had a full moon and clear skies!! The Full Snow Moon.
Last week before the weather got bad son Logan and I had a walk at Tulsa’s Gathering Place. One of my favorite spots is the sensory garden. All sorts of fun stuff here including mirrors and a geocache.
We checked out one of the play towers. When there are no kids around I have been known to climb up into these things. We just looked at it today.
And the beach. Too cold for anything beach related besides taking photos.
And the small lake, not much happening there.
I love the big timbers holding up the elevated trails. They have trails going this way and that and some of them cross over others. It’s quite the maze. Fun though!!
I violated a photography rule by shooting into the sun. I also got a crooked pic. Somehow, it worked for me.
And the roof the boat dock.
And then we ventured over to the nearby Arkansas River where the a new dam and pedestriana bridge are being built. The stuff in the foreground is where a new kayak park is going in. All this is going to be ready late next year.
And we saw two Cats.
And a Deer!!
Nope, this is not in Tulsa. I finished another jigsaw puzzle on my ipad. This one kicked my butt pretty good. I’m getting to where I like the tough ones.
If you want to visit the Gathering Place check out their web site. It’s free!! Bring money for drinks and food but you don’t need tickets or anything. Just come on down. Tell them I sent you.
I am linking with Skywatch Friday. Check it out. You’ll like it. I promise.
