Tuesday and Sunday Trail Runs

With spring weather oh so slowly easing in, trail running has been awesome. My training has gone from nada to a little here and there. I am cleared to run smart, and Turkey Mountain and I have become buddies again. The TOTs group has welcomed me back as their super-mediate leader, and 4+ miles each Tuesday evening and Sunday morning has been the norm.
The news at Turkey Mountain this past week has been interesting. Some hikers (looking for mushrooms) found a piece of a human skull on the north end of the mountain near Mooser Creek. KJRH posted a picture of the upper teeth in a skull. I am not sure if that is all they found. Our group Sunday ran to the end of the mountain and ambled through a homeless camp, that had tons of filth and trash. We scurried through because I am pretty sure someone was sleeping in the tents. Then we did a little bone searching of our own. Finding bones in the woods is like finding a needle in a haystack...

 but Bill thought he had found one. It turned out to be a stick. OR was Bill taking a squat???

Well, Bill is not so coordinated when he takes a squat in the woods. Like He wore his dirt-stained shirt with pride.

Our Tuesday group ran to the Pepsi Bridge, and then did a little bush-whacking between the bluffs of the north end of the mountain and Mooser Creek. The briers were thick, and I almost had a mutiny just before we reached the low-water dam. On our return trip, we discovered that the gas company has cleared the undergrowth 30 feet either side of the underground gas line. All of the bush whacking was unnecessary, but if there were bones to be found they would be in the undergrowth. 

Paul, Steve, and Leaha approve of the route chosen for the return trip. Another couple of weeks the ticks and chiggers will take over the area, and treks like this will be foolish without a dousing of DEET.

On the way back, we dropped by the Blue Roof Inn--another former homeless camp. This is an old homestead where all that is remaining is a storm cellar, the footing of an old house, and a well. Several times, homeless people have pitched tents, and when I started running Turkey, there was a HUGE blue tarp tented over the top of the open topped storm cellar. Several years back, the camp was torn down and much of the debris was burned in the pit. The trash here is awful.

These homemade hammocks are new. I would like to see this area patrolled a little better. Who knows who these people. I am sympathetic to people who have fallen on hard times, but this gives them no right to camp where it is clearly prohibited and then trashing the place up. There are several litter cleanup days put on by River Parks and other organizations, and these well attended endeavors haul out LOTS (even tons) of trash. It pisses me off to see my mountain trashed up by homeless people, litter bugs, or assholes dumping. 
(rant ends here. sorry)

For another take on the litter and skull discovery, read  Proactive Outside.

Tuesday Night at Mohawk

The Tuesday Night group, or as we have been called in the past The Tuesday Night Crawlers, have been haunting the woods of Mohawk Park.
6:00 pm is right at sundown, and dawning headlamps, we take off on single track trailz to the amusement of several deer. Bambi and company often follow us through the woods just to see what we're up to.


Jason, seeming a lot like a Keebler Elf anyway, seems right at home in a tree that could easily serve as a chocolate chip cookie bakery. It could also house a mad raccoon, or geocache.

There are around 4 miles of trail beyond the gates to thew Oxley Nature center. We basically wind around and run most of them. Dark evening skies come alive along the shores of Sportsman Lake as thousands of honking Canadian Geese curse us and take a brief flight as we tromp along the shore trail. You cannot see them in the night, but the air is full and you can feel the pulse of wings taking flight. This alone is worth coming out for a 4 mile run--but of course trail runners don't need payment for having fun.


Last week, a near full moon joined a nearby Jupiter and together they hosted passing planes as they took off from Tulsa International Airport. The lake below captured the image on a glossy canvas. Words cannot capture the awe of the moment, and picture is but a reminder of how unique the moment was.

This week, Thomas, Jason, Barbara, and I saw a few deer, and a few armadillo. We passed by a huge beaver lodge, and stopped to check out the biggest cottonwood tree maybe in the state.

We ran in circles on purpose, and crossed a long wooden bridge twice just for fun. These Tuesday runs are the very definition of fun. Come play with us.

carpooling, I've fallen--but I did get up, a hill peat, and IHOPing

A small group carpooled/caravanned to Keystone to run the trails just south of the dam. This is 5 miles of pure single track, with about half of it pretty darn rocks, and the 2nd half quite runnable. I quickly set the bar high--falling twice in the first mile. I was actually on pace for 10 falls in a run--but made some adjustments to my gait (PICK UP YOUR #&*@!! FEET) and finished my run upright--for the most part. RunnersWorld's Ultra Training Group along with the TOT remainders are joining forces on Sunday mornings, and a field trip here and there is on the docket.We ran the course, and then knocked out a hill peat. (A hill peat is a session of hill repeats that stopped at one.) There was no complaints, and we were very democratic about it. A one-by-one vote assured a tie, and then the lure of breakfast (BACON) tipped the scale in favor of an IHOP run over a hill run. All you can eat pancakes (actually a pancake and a half was good enough for me), and the group took seconds almost unanimously. Jason demonstrated the art of pancake bacon sandwiches, and is was the makings of a very good day.

Tuesday on Turkey

The Tuesday trail running assembly was huge yesterday, with 60+ runners mulling around at 6:30 ready to swarm the trailz and sweat. It was in the low 90s--perfect July weather, but what was not perfect was the 90% humidity to go with the warm temps. In less than 50 feet of trekking, my shirt was certifiably icky--the pungent aroma of zombie perspiration. The trailz had a feel of the jungle, with all vegetation in hyper-green mode. We divided the slower group in half before we even left the parking lot. There was a fast group led by David, a medium group led by Matt, and the slower group morphed into two packs before we even left the parking lot. Edward took the zombie shufflers, and I led a group of walkers.

 From left to right--Tonya, Erin, LaTonya, Kayla, Katelynn, and Dusti. These were no ordinary walkers. They had the power-walking thing going on, and it was all my short dwarf legs could do to stay ahead of them--I stealthily snuck in a shuffle-step every few seconds or so to keep from being perceived as a pitifully slow walker! We ran a serpentine route that I like which includes a climb to the top, a bit of blue, possum skull, more blue, a good dose of bunny, and a yellow finish. Most of the trailz were clear, but there is still a good sized tree down on the eastern side of the blue trail.
Snakes seen--0.
Ticks--0.
Chiggers--6 for me.
Pesky flies--5000.