Late afternoon sun on Turkey Mountain, Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is threatened with an Outlet Mall.
“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.” — Cree Indian proverb
“Keep close to Nature’s heart … and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” — John Muir
I went running on Turkey Mountain here in Tulsa last Wednesday night. It felt great, the temperature was cool, and there wasn’t very many people. I had a great time. I stopped by one of the ponds and took a pic of the reflections in the water. We’ve had some rain lately so there is water in the ponds and lakes.
Todd Huston of Tulsa went to Simon’s headquarters in Indianapolis and tried to present them with a petition signed by 8000 people asking them to cancel their mall plans and a t shirt.
Believe it or not some people actually want a mall at the location and are beginning to make themselves heard. Hey this is a free country.
The first Spring storm clouds of the season were pretty spectacular Tuesday night. They didn’t get to Tulsa and I was glad that they were over there and I wasn’t. At the bottom right of the photo is the first redbud blooms of Spring that I have seen this year.
Wednesday night was a different story. Their were a series of storms that spun up in the Oklahoma City and Moore areas and came up the turnpike to Tulsa and hit right around quitting time. A trailer park in the suburb of Sand Springs got hit and caused many injuries and one fatality as well as extensive damage. Heather and Logan were at home and I decided to stay at work. Being on the road is the worst place to be during a tornado.
My office is a beige box in the interior of the building so I stayed there instead of going out side and taking pictures. I did get this one grainy shot of a flare at one of the local refineries. I don’t think the refinery was damaged, most likely it was just a process upset. They will be filling out paperwork for a week for causing so much smoke though.
This could be another wild year for storms here in the heartland.
It was a great day for a trail race on Saturday morning. Cool, humid, and very little wind. It was very early spring like.
The sun was trying to burn through the clouds and never did quite make it.
Here is a mini video of the walk from the parking lot to the race start.
I got up to the old parking lot and checked out all the mud.
And checked out the race bling. This is as close as I’ll ever get.
And inspected this bad boy. I think I need one of these to mow my yard. I think it would do a pretty decent job. Anybody want to float me a loan?
The Race Director, Ken, aka Trail Zombie gave the runners some instructions. Follow the pink ribbons, don’t cross the yellow ribbons. Have a good time.
And the Six Hour Runners were off.
And then the Three Hour Runners, including moi. The races are a little different. Most races are a fixed length and whoever has the least time wins. In the Snake Races, the time is constant and whoever runs the longest wins. So there were two loops. A big loop of about 3.7 miles. We run that over and over, and if you don’t think you can finish another big loop before the time is up then there is another half mile loop that you can run over and over until the time is up. It is really very clever. I like it because I can always tell people that I had the same time as the winner.
Even though it was spring there wasn’t much color out on the mountain. The whitebuds blooming was about it.
There was one aid station out on the course that we hit twice each loop because of the way that the route folds in on itself. It was full service though, water, gatorade, baked potatoes rolled in salt, cookies, pickles, bananas, oranges, beer.
Nope, not for me. Actually I think it was a joke. I think. Although if you had an urgent need it may not be much of a joke.
And the course had a beer stop. This was my favorite. I hit it twice each loop. Going and coming. This guy had everything: All sorts of nice craft beers, and shots of various liquors including some home brew. Soft drinks for the kiddies.
I fell twice during the race. About six weeks ago I fell during a night run on the mountain and had a pain that still endures. That was on my left side. I was carrying my camera in left hand today and so I made sure that I fell on my right side. We bloggers know that ribs will heal but cameras won’t. I was telling that story to somebody at the end of the race and she said “You fell twice? You must have been one of those people hitting the beer stop pretty hard.” She had that “I got you look.” She must have been a school principal. The truth hurts sometimes. Now my left and my right sides hurt besides.
I wish that I had read this sign earlier. Maybe I would do better if I ran faster. I’ll have to check into the math and physics of that concept.
Here is the beer tent again on another stop. Lots of good stuff here. And no I didn’t stagger into the table to get this shot. Well, I didn’t mean to anyway.
And here is Brian Hoover, the force behind Tatur Racing and Chip Timing. I think that I had asked him if I run the race or something.
Brian and Ken started handing out the awards after the Three Hour Race.
No, I didn’t place. I don’t think that any of the people that placed took any pics out on the course or sampled any of the beer. You know beer doesn’t drink itself. I might have won the race if I hadn’t been fulfilling my journalistic duties. Hey you don’t know.
Or maybe I need a cool headband. I think it cuts the wind resistance or something. Or maybe it diverts blood supply to the legs. Something like that I’m sure.
And here is a guy taking a selfie. Sorry, if I see you taking a selfie, I’m going to get a pic of you.
And here is the record of my race. My strategy was to run for a quarter mile and walk for a minute. I did that through the whole race and it worked. Plus I drank lots of water and some Gatorade at the food stops along with the salted baked potato segments. I got pretty sore still which is not surprising because the longest distance I have run in the last several months is only six miles.
Tuesday night I went to a public meeting regarding Simon Group’s plans to put an outlet mall on Turkey Mountain. It was hosted by the City Councilor from the area, Jeannie Cue a very energetic and impressive woman. She made sure everybody who wanted to say something got to say it. There were other people there from the city including some planning staffers and Clay Bird of Tulsa’s office of Economic Development.
The bravest guy there was a local attorney representing Simon. He was hedging his bets a little bit speaking of Simon in the third person.
The city wants more businesses especially retail. The development guy, Clay Bird, said that Tulsa gets all its income from sales taxes. So retail is something that they target. I get that. I think most people get it, they just don’t want a mall on Turkey Mountain. Bird didn’t seem to grasp why. He kept saying things about it would only take up a little bit of the mountain and surely we could co-exist with the mall. That wasn’t really well received.
He lost the crowd though when he tossed out an idea that a parking garage could be built on the mountain to accommodate both mall shoppers and park users. People couldn’t believe it and let him have it. He recovered quickly with a quip about maybe putting a climbing wall on the side of the garage. He’s a good guy but he doesn’t get the concept of wilderness. Hiking, biking, or running on Turkey Mountain is not like doing the same in a public park. One needs the sense of space and remoteness and isolation.
During the Q&A it quickly became apparent that the overwhelming majority of people were okay with malls just not on the mountain. One comment that brought cheers was “It is the right project in the wrong place.” There was a lot of emotion against the mall. One guy spoke up for it pointing out that it is private property and he thought this was America. He got a smattering of applause.
And that brings up the whole problem. We may be able to get Simon to go away but the property is still private and it is zoned for development. As one questioner commented, we better be ready to buy the property if the mall fails. Amen. Anyone can see why Simon is interested in the property. It is near the confluence of two major highways in a hot area of town.
A spokesman for the Greater Tulsa YMCA read a Statement from the their Board of Directors stating their opposition unless Simon makes some concessions. They are asking about assurances on storm water management, water quality, setbacks, and maximum allowed building height. The proposed mall, as it is designed will loom over the YMCA’s Westside Y Day Camp unless changes like these are made.
It is kind of hard seeing how this can proceed. Through the efforts of such groups as the Urban Wilderness Coalition it seems that the profile of Turkey Mountain as something good is being raised. I can tell you that the park is being used considerably more than what it was even last year. I’m seeing lots of families out and about in the park.
Personally I think Simon Property Group should abandon their project. And then it will be up to people of Tulsa to acquire the property at a fair price.
This is from my first trail race ever. The 2011 version of the Tatur Run on Turkey Mountain held on November 6. I had forgotten how pretty the woods were.
I’m participating in Foto Friday Fun sponsored by Gaelyn.
The parking lot was cram full. Word is getting out on Turkey Mountain and its popularity is increasing.
The weather warmed up this week so Tuesday night I went to run after work with the Tatur Tots on Turkey Mountain. An informal group meets Tuesday evenings at 6:30 and Sunday mornings at 7:30 and breaks into groups based on speed. The motto is no one gets left behind. Typically there is a fast group and a slow group.
So off we went on the slow group, up the blue trail to the upper parking lot and then down the Snake Trail.
See that ridge over there? That is where the Outlet Mall would go. They would extend the ridge this way and put in a 75 foot tall retaining wall right on the creek. They want to start construction this Fall and plan to be done in a year. So in two years just imagine this ginormous parking lot looming over Turkey Mountain like a mesa and all their loose trash blowing out in the wind. Simon has said that we are just going to have to trust them on the water runoff issues and they do not plan on doing anything special in regards to making sure trash doesn’t blow off the property. They are a reputable company, but I’m not in a trusting mood right now. What about you?
And further on we went, or rather they they went, as I was taking pictures.
I caught up with them and took their picture. I think they were discussing doing away with the nobody gets left behind rule as it pertains to slow fat guys who hold everybody up to take pictures.
Aha, nope, it is not Simon Group starting on the mall. It is the River Parks authority reopening the upper parking lot at Turkey Mountain. The lower lot is full most weekends now and on nice days after work.
It’ll be nice to have. Don’t worry, they are reworking an existing parking lot so very little of the mountain is affected.
Time to go home and have an adult malted beverage. It may be a little early for a wheat beer but I had to try this nice Oklahoma brewed Coop Ale Works Elevator Wheat.
A public forum was held this week to discuss all sides of the issue. Simon was invited but didn’t show up. I wanted to go but couldn’t.
Simon has asked for a continuance for their hearing before the Tulsa Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (“TMPAC”). You just know they are out behind the scenes, working the city councilors, the mayor, the chamber of commerce, doing the big juicy carrots and ugly stick thing. Whispering “Jobs”, “Development”, “Business” blah, blah, blah into the ears of the movers and shakers. It is very rare for Tulsan’s to try and fight any sort of development. I still don’t know if this movement to get Simon to back off is going to succeed or not is going to work. I don’t know anybody, including me, who is against an outlet mall somewhere in principle. The site for this mall just doesn’t work. Check the Urban Wilderness Coalition site to see how you can help.
I cheated a little bit today. I went back to last Fall to find my photograph for SWF. This is a scene on Turkey Mountain’s new Zoi trail. I am not cool enough to know what “Zoi” means but it is a nice trail that doesn’t get a whole lot of traffic mainly because you have to hunt a little bit to find it. It is one of the few places on Turkey Mountain where I have seen deer in the last year or so.
Earlier this week a group of us met after work on Turkey Mountain under a full moon. It is supposed to be called the Snow Moon but there was no snow so I used the alternate name “The Hunger Moon.” So called because the hunting was pretty bad in February way back when.
It got kind of dark but we turned on our headlights and ran for a little over three and a half miles. The group runs for a while and then stops every now and then to let everybody get back together before we head off again. Nobody wants to leave anybody stranded on the mountain at night. Night running can be quite disorienting especially if you are not familiar with the trails.
A good time was had by all and we didn’t lose anybody. Especially the old guy who took the picture.
My Kia Soul parked on Turkey Mountain where the new Outlet Mall is going.
My friend Trail Zombie told me the other day that he thought my Rock City geocache on Turkey Mountain had gone missing. About the same time I got an email from a pesky out of state Geocaching Dot Com Administrator basically telling me to go check the cache.
Okay, Okay I get it, I will!! Having a teenager in the house I knew hot to act. So off I went last Saturday. I dropped the kid off at his Improv class and sped to the nearest Dollar General Store and got me some new containers and notebooks. I got several because, well, you know, well it turns out that several of my caches were gone missing. But hey, I’ve been busy.
I took along my new SJCAM SJ4000. It is a Go Pro clone for cheapskates like me. The video is pretty darn boring but it gives you and idea of the trails on Turkey Mountain.
And this video shows me getting closer to Rock City. Named for the big rocks there. We Okies re pretty darned creative with our place names don’t you think?
Anyway I took a little different route back with smoother flatter trails.
And I love this big old tree. I think that it is outside the boundaries of the proposed outlet mall. At least I hope it is.
I was fully nerded out with cell phone, camera, video camera, and a GPS enabled watch. Why you ask? Well you wouldn’t take a Ferrari out with instrumentation would you? Anyway the above shows you the route.
After I left Turkey Mountain I motored downtown, checked on one cache, replaced another, and then went over close to Saint Francis Hospital, replaced one near there (not on hospital property), and then over to a big freeway exchange in south Tulsa where I had yet another one that had gone missing.
