Category Archives: Turkey Mountain

Turkey Mountain in the Rain – Our World

Saturday I went to Tulsa’s popular Turkey Mountain park and did a little hiking. It is never very crowded once you get a quarter mile from the parking lot but what few people there were seemed to vanish when it started raining. The temperature was in the sixties and I didn’t care about getting wet. I did care about lightning so I took the above shot and got away from those powerlines.

The park has a surprising number of ponds (for some reason ponds are lakes on the mountain). Last summer they dried up. It is nice to see water in them.

I spent about two hours and found three of the seven new geocaches in the park and then left. Two hours well spent in my book.

Our World Tuesday

Skywatch Friday – First Run of the Year on Turkey Mountain

Daylight savings time is here and so I went running on Turkey Mountain after work for the first time since the Fall. I loved it. It was very windy and cold down on the river trails where I had been running but the woods on the mountain cut the wind to nothing. I did a slow and comfortable 3 miles or so and stopped and took lots of pics. As usual once I got a half mile from the parking lot I saw only three or four other people. It was great.

I saw a couple stringing up hammocks next to what I call “Wagon Wheel Lake” near the old parking lot. I don’t know what is up with that. Camping is a no-no on the mountain. Oh well!

Skywatch Friday

Hiking on Turkey Mountain

Last Saturday for one reason or another I ended up some time to myself in the afternoon between dropping the kid off at a friend of his and then picking him back up a couple hours later. So off to Turkey Mountain I went.

The weather was good and I had my running stuff but I didn’t want to run. I had my geocaching gear but I didn’t want to go geocaching. I just wanted to walk.

Somehow I felt guilty because I wasn’t running or bushwhacking through the brambles. I was just walking. I wasn’t strolling I was walking at a pretty good pace.

By now I know my way around the mountain pretty well. Not as well as some people I know but good enough that I think I know all the main trails pretty well and am familiar with the secondary trails and paths.

There is nothing like going through the woods. You can see a lot and hear a lot. It is amazing how loud some of our fellow people are and how quiet the animals are. Sounds travel far in winter woods.

You can hear squirrels skittering through the woods a long way off and birds coming off branches.

Turkey Mountain, an urban wilderness is in the middle of South Tulsa. There are two power lines criss crossing it (remember two lines is north and south, one single line is east west) and you have a great view of downtown from parts. And there used to be an oilfield up there and farms, and moonshiners. There is still some mysterious things that go on up there.

You’d of thought that it was an early Valentines Day. I saw several young couples ambling along hand in hand. You can tell by their slow step and general uawareness of their surroundings that they were more wrapped up with each other than the mysteries of the mountain. Good for them is what I say.

(I’m turning into the Picasso of shadowselfies)

Anyway I pondered these things and others while walking the trails as the late afternoon sun went to shadows.

The sun was getting low and the moon was rising. Time to go pick up the kid.

Daytime moons have always been a good omen for me. What is a good omen for you?

New Years Eve Geocaching – Finding Tom’s Turkey Mountain Homestead – Finally!!

There is a geocache named Tom’s Turkey Mountain Homestead located at an old Moonshiner’s Camp on Turkey Mountain. I have been looking for this cache a long time. The owner of the cache, kimbotjr, finally took mercy on me, or got tired my whining, and gave me a clue. I didn’t know when I was going to be able to get back up there because our weekends are pretty full and it is dark after work. Luckily though we got let our early at work on New Year’s Eve. So off I went in my work clothes.

I did change my shoes though. But otherwise I was the sharpest guy on the mountain on New Year’s Eve. Especially the hat.

The shadows were getting long so I didn’t have time to waste to use my precious clue.

Every time I’m up there I see things that I can’t explain. Don’t ask me what is going on here cuz I don’t know.

I had the clue but providence provided me with another aid to find the cache. Meet my new friend Soshie. Believe me or not but Soshie is no regular basset hound, he is a gold sniffing dog. That’s right, he can sniff out gold. Plus he likes me. So what the heck I took him along. I don’t know if that is cheating or not. My friend Trail Zombie used a metal detector to find this very same cache. If that is legal then using a gold sniffing dog is legal also. And probably not any help if there is no gold in the cache. Plus the cache is supposed to be a microcache, so it is pretty small.

Well guess what, we got there at the cache site and Soshie found the cache. Yes, he did and it was not a micro. Look at what we found.

The cache was as big as a bank vault! And loaded with gold. The site was not a moonshiner’s cabin. It was a gold mine. I found the lost treasure of Turkey Mountain! I don’t know how I missed it! Now, the cache is a mystery cache and posting pics of the cache is a nono but I hope that kimbotjr is understanding. If he is not he can delete my find. A find is worth a lot more than gold to a geocacher.

Our World – Geocaching on Turkey Mountain

I have geocache named Rock City hidden deep on Turkey Mountain. The last person who looked for it reported that they couldn’t find it although they looked twice. I knew that somebody had probably “muggled” it. Geocacher lingo for stealing or vandalizing a cache.

So I made me another cache out of a Bismati rice jar and some camo duct tape.

Son and I packed it up and headed up to Turkey Mountain. You can see the finished cache container sitting on the sign to the left.

A mountain unicycler came on by. Ultra cool. I have seen unicyclers on the mountain before but they had poles. This guy just had pure balance.

We passed this thing. I told Logan that it is the skeleton of a the TurkeyMountasaurous dinosaur. He quit believing in his Dad’s stories a long time ago. Shows you how smart he is. Compared to me at least.

This is Rock City. It is quite the meeting place. Stay here long enough you will see runners, hikers, bicyclists, geoachers, and micro car enthusiasts all converge here. One of whom stole my cache. I hope they quit. Anyway I replaced it. Here is the story of when we planted the cache two years ago. I put recyclable cameras in the caches I plant nowadays and ask finders to take pictures of themselves. Here are some pictures of people who have found the cache.

Then for grins and giggles we went over to another cache to Tom’s Turkey Mountain Homestead to look for it, again. I have been here at least a half dozen times the last year looking for it. I spent about a half hour rooting around looking for it. It is a micro so it is very small. I didn’t find it this time either.

As we left I noticed that a nearby tree was laughing at me. I don’t blame him. Next time I might bring my axe and see how he laughs then. (Just kidding folks!)

On the way out we passed Pepsi lake. Oddly enough it has a bunch of old Pepsi truck bodies sitting on the dam. I have no idea why. It is also the site of another evil little microcache, What are These Doing Here. I found it finally last year kind of by accident.

We finished our little adventure tired and a little muddy but we had a great walk in the woods.

When was the last time you had a nice walk in the woods?

Our World Tuesday

Our World – Turkey Mountain

It’s October and the temperatures are cooling here in Oklahoma. Not like they are elsewhere as we are still running our air conditioners but the weather is cool and dry. October is the Oklahoma’s best month. I happened to have Saturday morning free so I headed to my favorite running spot, Turkey Mountain. I had the place to myself. I’ve signed up for the Tulsa Run 15K race late this month and the Route 66 Half Marathon in late November so I’ve been running longer miles during the week. My goal Saturday was six miles of easy running.

I started down the trails but I noticed a short side trail that went to a road and I could barely see an opening on the other side. Hmm, I didn’t know there was a trail over there so I headed across.

And sure enough there was a faint trail over there. It wasn’t very big and it wasn’t very long, less than a mail loop. Guess what though. No litter. Yep, no red bull cans, no water bottles, nor candy bar wrappers. I scared up three white tail deer though. They don’t stick around for me to get my camera up and going though. It was pretty nice. I didn’t see any side trails though.

It was nice although the trail almost petered out a few times.

The only man made object I saw was this old barbed wire fence. Soon enough though I looped back across the road back to the park. Going from illegal to legal.

I made a turn through a privately owned area of the mountain. The owner bulldozed down a lot of brush and trees earlier this year and got everybody all excited that he was going to put something up but he was just clearing things out so it would be easier to sell. Still not good news but maybe somebody will step in and buy and and give it to the River Parks. Its happened before. Keep your fingers crossed.

Several bikes passed me. I passed one who called my name out as I went by and I yelled who’s that. He yelled “Tom.” I know a Tom who rides bikes and would ride by without stopping. It’s probably him.

There is one spot on the western side of Turkey Mountain looking east where you have a good panorama.

You can see from the pics that the leaves haven’t turned here yet. I did find some color.

I also found this little green snake. When I first started looking at him he reared up and was doing his cobra thing. Dang little dude has spirit. I have to give him that. This is actually the first snake I’ve ever seen on Turkey Mountain. He and I went on our separate ways.

I looped through the West Side YMCA. Earlier this year this pond was nearly dry. I’m glad we have been getting some rain.

More color on the mountain.

Anyway, I had six really slow, lazy, nice miles. I had a great day.

How are your days?

Our World Tuesday

Shadow Shot Sunday – On the Trails

Saturday I ran six miles on the trails of Turkey Mountain. Of course I took my camera and took lots of pics including this classic shadow selfie. The giveaway is the thrown out elbow. Although we are still pretty green here in the Tulsa area, the sun is getting lower and making great shadows.

Shadow Shot Sunday 2

Skywatch Friday – Fiery Sunset

The view west from the east side of the Arkansas River in Tulsa Wednesday evening. I love a little Fall color in the sky and on the river.

Skywatch Friday

Pondering the Mysteries of Labor Day on Turkey Mountain

I really can’t figure out Labor Day. We celebrate labor by taking the day off? What is up with that? I can’t figure it out, you know Memorial Day we fly flags, July 4th is Fireworks, Halloween is pumpkins. What is Labor Day and why do we celebrate it. I don’t know? We don’t really celebrate those who labor do we? No we just give them more work. Celebrating labor is slightly socialistic. What we really like is wealth. Wealth means no labor, at least not for them that has it. Lets have a national wealth day. I’d rather be rich than work. What about you? Oh well, nothing to get the mind on straight like going to Tulsa’s urban wilderness, Turkey Mountain.

Here I be!! I don’t take too many “selfies” as such pics are called on Instagram. I just wanted to show how happy I was to be there. Plus I got a rare haircut. I mean I paid 22 bucks for it. That comes out to be about 50 cents per each hair cut. That is is kind of high in my opinion. I mean cutting 44 hairs should cost less than 22 bucks I think. I think 10 cents a hair is more like it. What do you think? Another reason I’m smiling is cuz of this.

I smoked some chicken leq quarters the day before and after I get through running and getting cleaned up we are going over to Nana’s (the world’s greatest MIL) to eat the chicken along with a whole lot of other stuff.

There is not a whole lot to take pics of during the heat of the day. The deer and other critters are way off deep in the woods resting ( or that special place that waiters and waitresses go when you need your check). So I thought I’d take pics of the flowers I saw. There isn’t much color on Turkey Mountain this time of year.

You know what kind of flowers these are. Well some are yellow and some are purple. That is the sum of my knowledge about wildflowers.

It is hot, but only in the 90’s and the humidity is lower. Fall is coming. Autumn is my favorite season of the year. Warm days, cool nights, football. Unfortunately I’m a Dallas Cowboys fan so I football isn’t as enjoyable as it used to be.

There were also a bunch of spider webs out in the woods shaped like funnels. I would think that it would take some very energetic and creative spiders to create these. They are kind of like the roach motels of spiderwebs. My friend mister Google tells me that these are funnel-web spiders. The American kind is not really a bother to people. The Australlian variety is deadly. I wonder why that is, maybe it has something to do with spending their whole life upside down. I can’t think of anything else. Can you?

The thing about Turkey Mountain is that the trails are crowded with people the for about a half mile then it thins out rapidly especially to the northwest end of the mountain. I like to run out there to the Westside Y because it feels like a long ways.

I ran clear to the north side of the wilderness area to the Westside YMCA. They operate a day camp during the summer and give lots of kids a taste of the woods. This pond almost dried up over the winter but we’ve had some rain in the Tulsa area so now the kids have some water to canoe on. Or at least they would if there was still camps but the season is over.

I ran on back and came upon a bulletin board with maps and warnings and such. The River Parks authority has put several of these numbered stations across the mountain. The idea is that if you have a problem and can make it to the station then you can call 911 and tell the dispatcher what number you are at then they know where to send help. I think it is a good idea. There is water at the main parking lot but nowhere else. If you go up on the mountain take lots of water and if you are taking a dog take water for them also.

Nearby is what I call Wagon Wheel Lake (All the ponds on Turkey Mountain are called lakes for some reason, so I get to call the pond a lake also.) We have a had a wet year, usually the ponds are dry and the vegetation dried out by this time of year.

I finished up my run and took another selfie of me. Notice how I got my jaw forward to cut down the number of double chins? I tried that trick but it sure makes me look stern.

I ran the pic through the grunge filter on snapseed. I love this result. Sure makes me look grungy. I smelled pretty grungy too so I went home and cleaned up and we headed off to Nana’s.

Oh yes, after a pre-dinner Tanqueray and tonic we had the chicken, and purple hull peas, sliced tomatoes, marinated cucumbers, Sweeties home made cole slaw, and on and on. I was too busy eating it to take a picture of everthing.

So Labor Day turned out okay. I guess that I’ll stick with Labor Day and not agitate for a Wealth Day Holiday. I’ve been thinking about it and if you are wealthy then every day is a holiday. That’s what I think anyway.

Weekend Reflections – Turkey Mountain

Wednesday evening after work I headed to Turkey Mountain. Much has been happening lately and I can always get my head on straight up on the Mountain.

It has been raining lately so the trails are not as dusty as they were last summer.

There are even some sizeable puddles alongside some of the trails.

I’ve been experimenting with puddle reflections lately. You can really do that during a drouth. The above is one of my favorites so far.

The Westside YMCA runs a day camp on the north side of the mountain. They had spruced up their trail signs. I could hear some loud drumming and yelling going on. I was curious about what was going on but I stayed away.

I did stop and take a pic of their fishing pond though. Nice to see them starting to fill up again.

A previous employer of mine has a pipeline that runs across the mountain. I’m big into connectivity and I’m very familiar with this pipeline and the network it connects to. If I bang it with a hammer (I’d never do that of course it would damage the coating) I can just imagine the sound traveling from here to almost every state in the lower 48 and Canada and also Mexico. I have maps so that I can show you just how that would work. Of course, you would have to put your ears to the pipe and listen very attentively to hear me hammering.