Day 9 - OK Freewheel Day 3
Tuesday, June 7
Mena, Arkansas to Poteau, Oklahoma
64 miles, 6h12m moving, 10.3 mph, 2127’ elevation gain, 511 total miles
I think this was the only morning that I was ready before the others.
We were on the road today by 620 am and had a short descent north out of Mena and then turned west through two ridges for what promised to be a very scenic ride. It was humid and fog hung over the road in places and obscured the tops of the ridges in others.
After turning east we had about 13 miles and almost 800’ of elevation gain. The slope was often so gradual, I would find myself wondering if I left a brake engaged after stopping for the last picture, nope.
But a beautiful environment for a ride. This was the start of the gradual downhill which dominated most of the rest of the day. The white cloud is actually fog obscuring a portion of the ridge which will be to our left for the next 15+ miles. Most of the pictures from today are from this first part of the day.
This young lady (I think I heard her tell someone she was in her 80s, but my hearing is not so good) is from the Little Rock, Arkansas area and she passed me a lot on this trip. She is a very strong rider up the hills, but I think I would take a shorter break at the rest stops. We were often on the last stretch of the ride together by the end of the day. Just one of the inspiring riders I met on Freewheel.
The picture I took of the train right after she took off again.
You can't see it, but there is a small creek between the train and the road, I could often hear it as I rode. In places it was large enough to have a small bridge or low water crossing, in others just a trickle.
Mark zipping along while I snap a shot of the northern ridge.
And back in OK.
Not long after the train, it started to sprinkle occasionally, not enough to warrant the rain jacket. But it wasn't long and we were pulled over and suiting up. For the next several hours we rode in mostly moderate rain.
The most observant may have noticed that I do not have fenders on my trike. 🏆 for those who did.
On this day, I could not figure out how to get my hood to stay over my helmet, it kept blowing off, so eventually I just quit trying. There was enough water coming down and on the road that my rear wheel acted like a waterwheel and dumped a steady stream right down the back of my jersey. We stopped at the next gas station/convenience store that came along and this is how I looked. I know, I am smiling, and I was loving the ride even though I was making mental notes about how to make the next rain 'opportunity' a bit different.
Just after the rain started, a rider had passed me and said, "Willie, your back wheel looks to be badly out of alignment" or something like that. I stopped and looked at it and didn't notice anything in my brief inspection. I mentioned it to David and he watched from behind and said it seemed OK to him. And we pressed on. More on that later.
Not long after the convenience store stop, the route took a short detour in the town of Heavener, OK. There is a park there called
Heavener Runestone Park. I am going to make another post about this detour below so I can add a few more photos.
The last rest stop was in Heavener (pronounced hiv-ner) after the park and then a rolling county road on to Poteau (pronounced Po toe). This is a picture a few miles outside of Poteau of
Cavanal Hill, a geological attraction of the area.