Lake Bixhoma is a water supply lake for the Tulsa suburb of Bixby. It is known for its clean water and protection from wind since it is surrounded on three sides by hills. It has a few hiking trails that are known for being kind of tough plus they have all sorts of venomous snakes there. I’ve been lucky and never seen one except for a water snake last year. The place also has a geocache that has not been found in four years. So I wanted to do two things. Find the cache and hike completely around the lake which I have never done before. I also wanted to lessen the chances of serpent encounter by doing the hike while the snakes were still in brumation (the snake form of hibernation.)
So I started off at the beginning. I couldn’t make heads nor tails of this map at the time. All I wanted to do was avoid the “snake farm” indicated on the upper part of the map. Off I went. You don’t really need a map. Just keep the lake in sight and you’ll be okay. That turned out not to be totally true.
The trail is a mix of old road, nice single track and some pretty technical rocky sections.
They used to have a road that went deeper into the park and had picnic pavilions, restrooms and such. These are now abandoned.
There is evidence of old farms and houses here. I’m told that this is a model T axle. How it got there, I don’t know.
There is a little creek flowing into the lake.
Last year I came looking for the cache and turned back at this creek crossing. I had my good camera with me and no walking stick. So I didn’t want to take a tumble into the water. This year I came upon a young woman who had two dogs on leash who was considering the crossing and went ahead and did it even though the dogs were pulling here pretty hard. I said, okay if she can do it I can so I got across with dry feet.
Soon after crossing I started deadheading to the cache. No trail so I was going around thorns and such. Found me this old turtle shell.
And a skull of some unlucky critter.
I got to ground zero which was almost on the lake. It looks like one could take a kayak almost all the way there. In fact almost all the previous finders used a kayak but had to beach it in marshy areas and get all muddy coming in.
I looked for the cache for an hour. I was envisioning something big like an ammo box. I was convinced that the cache had gone missing. “Muggled” they say in the geocaching world. I looked for it for an hour or so and couldn’t find it. I had marked ground zero with my blue water bottle and when I gave up looking for the cache well then I couldn’t find my bottle. So I had to hunt for the water bottle and when I found it, I saw the cache. Which is why I marked the zero point with my bottle. I could have saved an hour, oh well.
The thing is that the cache container’s top had been chewed by some critter and the container was level full of water. So I obviously could not sign the log. I’m still claiming it! I logged the find online and cache owner got back with me and said that they would replace the container.
So then I hiked out. Since I wanted to circumnavigate the lake I had to take the long way out. It was a mile and a half to the cache site and I hike almost two and a half miles to get back out. A good time was had by all is my motto.
On Valentine’s Day my bride, Heather, and I visited the Philbrook Museum here in Tulsa. I found this shadow outside. It reminded me of a carpet runner.
And then here is me casting my shadow on another set of stairs.
We warmed up briefly here in Oklahoma and I declared it to be the year’s first shorts day. I went to Ray Harral Nature Center and captured this shadow on their revamped hiking trail bridge.
Toward the end of my outing the I found this scene where the pine tree crown is in the sun while the bottom of the trees are getting shadowed by the declining sun.
My wife and I went to Philbrook Museum on Valentine’s Day and found this valentine’s squirrel out and about.
I took my “good” camera to Ray Harral Nature Center. I saw all sorts of birds and squirrels but the brush was so thick I couldn’t get a decent photo of anything, but I got this body shot of a squirrel with no head.
And they had a nice bug hotel. Does that count?
Kodi the Pomeranian and I are getting along a little bit better.
He had the zoomies the other day in the back yard and was quite playful.
Things change fast around here in northeast Oklahoma. Just a few days ago it was freezing and we had snow on the ground.
And then it warmed up! Way past my sweet spot. My sweet spot in the winter is in the 40’s. It keeps the snakes brumating and the ticks and chiggers at bay.
So it has been pleasant the past few days.
On Valentines Day Heather and I spent the afternoon together. We toured Philbrook Museums galleries and gardens, lunched at the tony Utica Square shopping center and then shopped at Trader Joe’s.
https://flic.kr/p/2pyqn1D
Today, son Logan and I hiked two miles and change on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain. It was glorious.
I saw this strange double bent tree. My bet is that it is haunted. Turkey Mountain has a long history of outlaws, moonshiners, fourtune hunters, drug labbers, railroaders, ranchers, and worst of all oilfield workers (aka oilfield trash.) So yeah, there is a lot of haunting going on.
They are busy at even more things to play on the mountain. We chatted with the guy building this thing. He and his 87 year grandfather are working on it. It’s going to be for mountain bikers. It looks like a crappy way to die to me.
Sometimes I think I do too much social media type stuff. One of the things I do is PostCrossing. It’s a site where people from all over the world exchange post cards. If you send a card to somebody, then somebody else sends you card. I have exchanged 321 cards over the years with people from 49 countries. Most exchangers are perfunctory but I always check and see what their interests are and if they are on social media. So far I’ve added a few people that way on instagram and found a few geocachers.
You can request what kind of cards you want and I say I like art so I get quite a few cards showing photographs of art works from all over the world. I got a card from somebody from the Ukraine with the above image on it. The back of the card said “I want to introduce you to the Belarusian artist Leonid Afremov… He lived in in Mexico and the USA for many years.” My interest was piqued because here is a guy from Belarus painting a bull fighting scene. I googled Leonid Afremov and sure enough he was an artist who lived in the USA for several years and then moved to Play Carmen, Mexico and then died there.
His family still runs his studio and offers his art up for sale on the internet. I love his style to extravagant and colorful and the prices are reasonable. Go check it out.
The bad part of social media is the creeps you end up running into. The good part is how you can learn things about people from one to one interactions. I have online friends all over the world and I value them tremendously. I hardly ever get the opportunity to meet one in real life.
My son and I have been on a couple of hikes lately on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain. We found this old oil well pumpjack foundation. Oil was discovered on the mountain in the 1920’s and production continued until the 1960’s. There are lots of old relics of the industry scattered about on the mountain. I personally know people who worked on these wells.
https://flic.kr/p/2pxauUn
We went by this old wellhead. Don’t worry it’s safe.
I fired up the trailcam again the other day (It had run out of juice and I forgot to set the clock and calendar) and there was a rabbit in it, for hundreds of photos.
That’s the bad thing about trailcams, weeding through all the photos. If you have video it is that much worse. So this rabbit has been having a party in this corner of the backyard.
Captured a squirrel image as well
Son and I went hiking on Turkey Mountain the other day. We found this great blue heron fishing in the Arkansas River. There was heavy brush along the banks so I didn’t get his head very good.
Nearby, this fat robin was looking right at me.
I heard a distinctive “snuffling” sound in the leaves close to the trail and sure enough, an armadillo.
I love armadillos. You can get really close to them.
Life sure is better when you can get outside and do things!
Launched my drone again from my back yard. I thought the sunset was going to be better than what it was. Better than nothing though.
I pointed the aircraft west and oriented the camera down a little bit and caught the west side of our neighborhood.
Son, Logan and I went for a hike on Turkey Mountain the other day. It was beautiful. We spent some time on the paved trail next to the Arkansas River.
https://flic.kr/p/2pwF29b
We had a good time.
I went geocaching the other day. The sky was pretty cool, and I had a successful hunt. It was close to residences and I was feeling watched.
Found some more at a neighborhood park in an older part of town. It was an historic park. For one thing it was close to aircraft manufacturing plants during World War II. The men were at war so the housewives worked. There was an old retired guy who looked after the kids at this park during the workday. I bet that was a zoo.
I got lucky and found a very small geocache, It still counts.
I went to the Tulsa Boat Show on a rainy day last weekend and here he is what I saw.
Lots of personal watercraft on display. I’ve never been on one of these and I think it would be a blast. I know people who cannot afford boats buy these things now. They are the size of a small boat.
I loved the color of this boat.
Our sheriff’s department brought one of their boats. I think riding in one of these would also be fun.
There were a couple of vintage wooden boats on display, not for sale. This is a 1959 Riva Ariston built in Italy. It is named Bella Vita which means “Beautiful Life.”
I cannot imagine putting it in the water. It is number 219 of 1021 built.
This is a 1955 Chris Craft Cobra 21′. It’s also gorgeous. Number 18 of only 56 built.
And back to boats for sale. They had a bunch of pontoon boats. My in-laws had one and it was fun.
And bass boats. I saw one for $91,000. I bought a used bass boat when I lived near a lake in Texas back in the day. It was used and I think I paid like $400 and sold it back to the guy I bought it from for $400. The two happiest days of my life were the day I bought and the day I sold it.
Lots of little light weight travel trailers. I love the retro design of this one. It had the door at the back.
This was probably the most popular trailer. I had to stand in place for a while before traffic cleared out so I could take a photo. A trailer with a back deck and loft sleeping areas. It also is a rear entry.
The interior is cool.
Here’s another two story trailer but not near as nice. So I guess the kids sleep up top to give mom and dad a little privacy?
And some RV’s. Here is a truck conversion.
And here is a deluxe version.
They had four wheelers for sale.
And two wheelers.
Anyway, it was a nice day to spend a rainy couple of hours. I don’t buy anything, I just like looking.
