February 23, 2012

Turkey Mountain Biking

While staying at an RV Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma I decided to give a nearby mountain biking trail a try. Here is my write-up on that trail and the experience I had there.

I will first preface this post with the fact that I did very little research on this mountain biking trail. This certainly hindered me on the ride. Also, what little I did read, rated this trail system as difficult, but well-marked. I would agree with the difficult part, but not so much with the well-market.

To get to the Turkey Mountain main trail head  I would suggest accessing the park on the South or Southwest side and following the power lines in. Unfortunately, I didn't know this beforehand and tried to ride up on some single track on the East, Northeast side, to little avail. See the pic below for more detail, but it involved two very strenuous hike-a-bike sessions, each lasting about 10 minutes!
Turkey Mountain Trail Map
Hike a Bike!
Technical Section
Once making it to the top, there was a great map outlining distances and routes.  I hopped on the Pink and Yellow routes and pedaled out some good miles. The Yellow route, called the “Enthusiast Route,” was a blast and had some fairly technical sections sparsely intermingled in through rolling smooth single-track, and the route was well marked.  The Pink route was a bit of a bear to ride and get in to any kind of a groove.  About every 75 feet I would come to a four-way intersection with either all of them marked pink or none of them marked pink. Sometimes taking a right turn would yield a nice long section, while going straight would bring you back to the start in a short circle and vice-versa. Additionally, there were some pretty wicked technical sections that could be ridden, but very cautiously and I had a hard time developing any kind of rhythm.

Lovely taste in the air from the local sewage plant.
Overall I moderately enjoyed the trails, but would like them more once learning the routes a bit better.

The Ride: 9.83 miles in 1 hour 18 minutes - Slow.  This includes some picture taking and the hik-a-bikes.

S.

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