After enduring 22 miles of pavement with my RunnersWorld friends, I needed to put in some easy primitive miles at a nice zombie pace. What pace, you ask? Well lets just say I was glad to get into double digits before my Garmin ran out of juice.
Since we have had about 10 days without rain, I thought the trails west of Chandler Park might be dry enough to traverse without the mud caking up on the shoes like leg weights. It was a hunch, and a good one. This area is always muddy, even during the drought months, but there were enough dry areas to allow for some zigzaging to avoid the tarpits. But enough words....here's some pics of the adventure.
Instead of parking at Chandler Park, and going 2 miles or so on trails I have already seen, I parked in the TCC parking lot 2 miles south as the crow flies, and found a trail head there. Nothing is marked, and maybe nobody knows where these entrances are.
No less than 1/4 mile into the run, I heard the gurgle of a stream. You rarely hear that sound in Oklahoma. Most running water here is muddy, and just does not sound the same. And make no mistake, there is plenty of muddy water in this 6 square mile wilderness.
Today's nominee for the Scary Tree award.
An enhanced pic of the same tree.
First water crossing of the day. I did manage to keep the feet dry all day. But the Montrails did get acquainted with a little mud.
Another tree pic.
This is the Deer Tree.
Quite a nice rack on this deer, don't you think?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
This plot of land is roughly 3 miles by 2 miles. My 'rithmatic tells me that's about 6 square miles. What I call trails, in this case, are fire roads accessible by 4-wheel drive and ATVs. There are some major powerlines running both east and west, and north and south, and some buried gas lines as well. Under the electric lines and above the gas lines are rugged, hilly, rutted, muddy, rocky excuses for roads.
There are also some other narrow trail/roads that go every which way here and there, across the top, through the woods, along and through creek bottoms, down some hill for no reason only to dead end....it's anyone's guess. Great place to waste a day in the woods. It's some running that will get you ready for a hard technical race. Hmmm.
A rare flat section, that was actually several huge slabs of rock, with some nice mud for giggles.
This area has the potential to be a great place for trail running. However, over the years some stupid inconsiderate dolts have used this land as a dump. I did not take pics of he piles of trash, but there is a lot of it in places. But there are also miles of trails with little or no trash. I am amazed though how even deep in the woods, I'll see beer cans laying around. Do dudes on ATVs pack a cooler with them on their rides? Maybe it's the horseback riders? Maybe they are thrown out of airplanes. Maybe a tornado send the Bud Light cans hurling from some beer bash over in Sand Springs to this wilderness area.
Another eyesore is all the stripped and burnt cars. I counted 8-10 and I am sure there are more. Stolen....probably, and never recovered.
Click on the pic to enlarge. If you had a car stolen in the past few years that was never recovered, it might be here.
What once was a nice little fishing dock/boat slip.
Another water crossing. Feet still dry.
Most of my running/trekking was up up up, or down. As I mentioned earlier, my pace was not anything to brag about.
Little by little, my blue sky was chased away by the grayness of November clouds.
Finally, after x:xx, I had this last hill to climb, and I called it a day.
I'll go back to run here again. Might have a better time on fresher legs. Of course, I'd just punish those legs all the more if I felt more like running.
COMMENTS:
HappyTrails said...
Nice run TZ - those are some great fall trail pics (except for the cars...) Do I see a Tatur event happening there in the future?
November 9, 2009 6:55 AM
Yogi♪♪♪ said...
It looks to me to be a great area to hide a geocache.
November 9, 2009 7:06 AM
T Z said...
I dunno Steve. These are challenging trails/fire roads....maybe too hard for a lot of casual trail runners. I am bummed about the trash dumped and the burned cars. I may do a Barkley Book Fair night run here where the books are hidden in the glove compartment of each car. Hmmm....
November 9, 2009 11:18 AM
HappyTrails said...
See - great minds think alike ...
November 9, 2009 8:43 PM
ultra runner said...
TZ, this is a definite place for a TATUR event. With Know No Boundaries, I would not mind planning something for the spring as KNB as a sponsor.
We can talk when I am home.
K2
November 10, 2009 2:26 AM
Since we have had about 10 days without rain, I thought the trails west of Chandler Park might be dry enough to traverse without the mud caking up on the shoes like leg weights. It was a hunch, and a good one. This area is always muddy, even during the drought months, but there were enough dry areas to allow for some zigzaging to avoid the tarpits. But enough words....here's some pics of the adventure.
Instead of parking at Chandler Park, and going 2 miles or so on trails I have already seen, I parked in the TCC parking lot 2 miles south as the crow flies, and found a trail head there. Nothing is marked, and maybe nobody knows where these entrances are.
No less than 1/4 mile into the run, I heard the gurgle of a stream. You rarely hear that sound in Oklahoma. Most running water here is muddy, and just does not sound the same. And make no mistake, there is plenty of muddy water in this 6 square mile wilderness.
Today's nominee for the Scary Tree award.
An enhanced pic of the same tree.
First water crossing of the day. I did manage to keep the feet dry all day. But the Montrails did get acquainted with a little mud.
Another tree pic.
This is the Deer Tree.
Quite a nice rack on this deer, don't you think?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
This plot of land is roughly 3 miles by 2 miles. My 'rithmatic tells me that's about 6 square miles. What I call trails, in this case, are fire roads accessible by 4-wheel drive and ATVs. There are some major powerlines running both east and west, and north and south, and some buried gas lines as well. Under the electric lines and above the gas lines are rugged, hilly, rutted, muddy, rocky excuses for roads.
There are also some other narrow trail/roads that go every which way here and there, across the top, through the woods, along and through creek bottoms, down some hill for no reason only to dead end....it's anyone's guess. Great place to waste a day in the woods. It's some running that will get you ready for a hard technical race. Hmmm.
A rare flat section, that was actually several huge slabs of rock, with some nice mud for giggles.
This area has the potential to be a great place for trail running. However, over the years some stupid inconsiderate dolts have used this land as a dump. I did not take pics of he piles of trash, but there is a lot of it in places. But there are also miles of trails with little or no trash. I am amazed though how even deep in the woods, I'll see beer cans laying around. Do dudes on ATVs pack a cooler with them on their rides? Maybe it's the horseback riders? Maybe they are thrown out of airplanes. Maybe a tornado send the Bud Light cans hurling from some beer bash over in Sand Springs to this wilderness area.
Another eyesore is all the stripped and burnt cars. I counted 8-10 and I am sure there are more. Stolen....probably, and never recovered.
Click on the pic to enlarge. If you had a car stolen in the past few years that was never recovered, it might be here.
What once was a nice little fishing dock/boat slip.
Another water crossing. Feet still dry.Most of my running/trekking was up up up, or down. As I mentioned earlier, my pace was not anything to brag about.
Little by little, my blue sky was chased away by the grayness of November clouds.
Finally, after x:xx, I had this last hill to climb, and I called it a day.
I'll go back to run here again. Might have a better time on fresher legs. Of course, I'd just punish those legs all the more if I felt more like running.COMMENTS:
HappyTrails said...
Nice run TZ - those are some great fall trail pics (except for the cars...) Do I see a Tatur event happening there in the future?
November 9, 2009 6:55 AM
Yogi♪♪♪ said...
It looks to me to be a great area to hide a geocache.
November 9, 2009 7:06 AM
T Z said...
I dunno Steve. These are challenging trails/fire roads....maybe too hard for a lot of casual trail runners. I am bummed about the trash dumped and the burned cars. I may do a Barkley Book Fair night run here where the books are hidden in the glove compartment of each car. Hmmm....
November 9, 2009 11:18 AM
HappyTrails said...
See - great minds think alike ...
November 9, 2009 8:43 PM
ultra runner said...
TZ, this is a definite place for a TATUR event. With Know No Boundaries, I would not mind planning something for the spring as KNB as a sponsor.
We can talk when I am home.
K2
November 10, 2009 2:26 AM
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