Mountain bike near home
You might think Oklahoma is a bad place to mountain bike. Not so.
There are many trails in Oklahoma that will challenge, many of which are closer to home than you might think. I bought my Gary Fisher Sugar 4+ nearly 3 years ago and have logged many hundreds of hours on Oklahoma Trails.
I have bruised, scarred and bled from falls. In other words, some are quite challenging. But as I have always said, “If you’re not falling, you’re not trying hard enough.”
I routinely ride Bluff Creek, which is just about a 5 minute drive from my house or a 10 minute ride. The trail is difficult in spots, but I have ridden it so many times I can usually get around the 3 1/2 mile trail in about 25 minutes or less, depending on how I’m feeling that day. These days I usually ride two laps and that amounts to a healthy workout.
My auxiliary trail is out on the east side of Lake Stanly Draper. This trail definitely has some trickier spots and is much longer, but the green (easy section) can be ridden with a confident ease, even by novices.
Clear Bay down at Lake Thunderbird is one of the best in the state. The only trouble is, it’s quite expensive as far as gas goes and quite time consuming for me to make the trip down to Norman.
I’ve never been much for running or jogging, so mountain biking gives me the best of both worlds. I get a good workout and I am outdoors where I am most at ease. The competition against self is great.
If you want to get into mountain biking, know that there are many great trails in not only Oklahoma, but neighboring Arkansas and even Texas. But a good piece of advice? Don’t skimp on buying a bike. Spend the money. You will pay for it.
Going out to the local Wal Mart or Target for a mountain bike is ill-advised. They may seem up to the challenge, but those bikes will crumble on some of the tougher sections of trail.
You must always, ALWAYS wear a helmet.
Here’s a link to a great site with information about some regional trails and just Okie biking in general.
Get outdoors.
Best,
Augie Frost
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment