Tour de Trees
After agonizing for a while as to whether I wanted to do a club ride, or the Tour de Trees ride put on by the Oklahoma Bicycle Society, and and held in the Lake Eufaula area....I finally decided to go out to Eufaula. Boy was I glad I did, what a wonderful ride this was.Beautiful, challenging, and long enough at 66 miles, especially given the hills. There were so many hills.....did I say hills.... I didn't want to forget to mention that there were hills. Ah but I'm getting ahead of myself here, so lets start at the beginning...Dogwood Campground at Eufaula State Park.....8:45am and 43 degrees....
Would you take my picture please...."Sure Hon....Hey Jackie, go stand next to that fellow and look pretty". "Sure....that I can manage"
And I thought she did an admirable job at that.
A pretty little pond on the way...
The first look at the lake......
After we crossed the bridge over the lake...we wound on through some pretty countryside and finally up into the hills..
The view from the top of the first hill was wonderful...
As promised, a few pretty trees although most had already went past their prime..
Then more Idyllic countryside until we came to the Eufalua Dam.....I was on the lee side of the dam and the water rushing down made for a nice photo...
The Arkansas River after leaving the Dam...
After a bunch more hills and valleys and weaving in and out amognst the mountains I took a little rest stop along with a nember of other cyclists at a gas station in Porum....It was time for a cup of HOT java.....it had warmed up to 48 by then, but the wind chill moving through the air was still pretty cool. Another bunch of hills.... and then....TA DA........ Booker Mountain Road.....from the bottom....
Half way up looking back down....you can see the lake in the background..... I was lower than the lake below the spillway just a short half hour before...Jim Bangs... I did NOT average seven miles an hour going up this thing... you could have walked up faster than I went...
Three quarters up and looking back toward the lake...
and a pretty tree near the same spot....
After I reached the top finally.... I was going to have a snack, but decided to wait a bit.... it's a good thing I did because it wasn't the top yet.... just a short respite from the initial climb and then we went back up some more...and some more....finally our smooth road turned to rough and washouts, and mud in places, and I knew I had reached the top....then pick my way over the meadows at the top
being careful not to disturb the local residents
FInally I ate my Lara Bar while I was talking to the horse....she wanted some too....but I declined.....I made her watch as I scarfed it all down, poor thing.
The rest of the trip was not too exciting, just ride the roads and put up with traffic. The traffic really got bad when we reached U.S. 69....a four lane freeway, busy with trucks headed north out of Dallas, but to be fair, only four miles, and the only way across the lake bridge and back to the campground. Then back to the campground again Tired for sure, muscles very sore after all the climbing, but one happy camper....
Would you take my picture please...."Sure Hon....Hey Jackie, go stand next to that fellow and look pretty". "Sure....that I can manage"
And I thought she did an admirable job at that.
A pretty little pond on the way...
The first look at the lake......
After we crossed the bridge over the lake...we wound on through some pretty countryside and finally up into the hills..
The view from the top of the first hill was wonderful...
As promised, a few pretty trees although most had already went past their prime..
Then more Idyllic countryside until we came to the Eufalua Dam.....I was on the lee side of the dam and the water rushing down made for a nice photo...
The Arkansas River after leaving the Dam...
After a bunch more hills and valleys and weaving in and out amognst the mountains I took a little rest stop along with a nember of other cyclists at a gas station in Porum....It was time for a cup of HOT java.....it had warmed up to 48 by then, but the wind chill moving through the air was still pretty cool. Another bunch of hills.... and then....TA DA........ Booker Mountain Road.....from the bottom....
Half way up looking back down....you can see the lake in the background..... I was lower than the lake below the spillway just a short half hour before...Jim Bangs... I did NOT average seven miles an hour going up this thing... you could have walked up faster than I went...
Three quarters up and looking back toward the lake...
and a pretty tree near the same spot....
After I reached the top finally.... I was going to have a snack, but decided to wait a bit.... it's a good thing I did because it wasn't the top yet.... just a short respite from the initial climb and then we went back up some more...and some more....finally our smooth road turned to rough and washouts, and mud in places, and I knew I had reached the top....then pick my way over the meadows at the top
being careful not to disturb the local residents
FInally I ate my Lara Bar while I was talking to the horse....she wanted some too....but I declined.....I made her watch as I scarfed it all down, poor thing.
The rest of the trip was not too exciting, just ride the roads and put up with traffic. The traffic really got bad when we reached U.S. 69....a four lane freeway, busy with trucks headed north out of Dallas, but to be fair, only four miles, and the only way across the lake bridge and back to the campground. Then back to the campground again Tired for sure, muscles very sore after all the climbing, but one happy camper....
