I saw a lot of signs like that on my bike tour in Arizona.

If I established a town myself, I don't know if I could have come up with a more attractive name than Heavener. Heavener sounds like it would be even more heaven-like than heaven itself.

I hope your "grub" didn't have worms or minnows in it.

Got to love Harvey.

Thanks for the info! I looked at the state of Oklahoma's official traffic count map, but it doesn't seem to include any "minor" roads at all. I tour on a mountain bike in part so I can ride almost any surface if I have to.

In keeping with my more recent touring philosophy, I'll likely "wing it" in terms of a definite route for the most part in any case.

No special considerations needed for tribal lands, most of the time you won't even know you're on them. Most police agencies are cross-deputized so they can enforce laws both on and off the reservations. I don't think stealth camping would be any different on tribal lands - but I'd be real cautious with that option regardless. Much of eastern Oklahoma is forested and hilly, there's probably more opportunity for hidden camping here than in other places.

County roads and roads through the reservations are a mixed bag; some are paved and well-maintained, some were paved but haven't been maintained, and some are dirt/gravel. I don't know of a good resource to evaluate travel on the secondary roads, but I have done well using Google bicycle routing when there's no other resource. That's what I'd use to plan a bike route through unknown rural Oklahoma areas - then use Google Earth to take a close look at the roads on the route, you can usually at least tell if they are paved or not.

Thanks for the interesting write-up. I have a couple of questions for you:

1. Are there any special considerations when cycling through tribal lands? I assume any sort of stealth camping is a big no-no, not that I'm a fan of stealth camping anyway. Anything else to be aware of?

2. From looking at Google Maps, there does appear to be a pretty extensive network of country roads, although Street View is not available for a lot of them, so it's hard to verify if they actually exist. what's the level of maintenance of those sorts of roads, generally? I'm ok with gravel from time to time, but I know from living in Illinois for six years that some of the roads there that show up on Google Maps haven't actually existed for decades. Is Oklahoma similar?

Thanks,
Jeff

Thanks! My idea is to ride from my home in Western Kentucky, enter Arkansas at its northeast corner, and more or less ride across the state into Oklahoma, and then across Oklahoma, or part of the way across. My exact route would be based on the location of low-traffic roads (my primary consideration), and "interesting" scenery or other things to see (using my own quirky definition of "interesting", haha.)

I tour on a mountain bike now, so I don't mind dirt or gravel roads sometimes, and I like climbing, so hills are fine. You mentioned the Quachita Mountains in your introduction, which I'd noticed when looking at Google Maps the other day, so I'd probably want to include that area.

I'll look for the Oklahoma Freewheel info. Thanks for that tip.

I'll definitely do a journal if I can do the trip. I'm currently recovering from a broken foot, which I hope I'll be recovered from enough by early June so I can do this trip.

Jeff

Jeff, looking at your profile it's obvious that you are a very experienced cycle tourist! You mentioned that you've never ridden in AR or OK. AR is my home state and I did a bit of riding around the state in the "old days" (1970's); OK has been my home for more than 40 years now and I've ridden across it a few times on the organized "Freewheel" tours. Neither of these states are very bike-friendly. The Oklahoma Freewheel runs from south to north across the state each year; they have a website and you may be able to find maps of the previous year's events. They aim to route on low-traveled county roads, so if any of their routes fell near your intended travel it may be helpful. My sister did a supported tour around the perimeter of AR a few years ago; I'll check whether she has any maps or insights that may be helpful. I'll be interested in following your journey to see how your routing works out, hopefully you will write a journal about it.

Thanks. I'm familiar with the ACA routes, and have done many of them (TransAm, Northern Tier, Western Express, some smaller ones.)

These days I prefer to make my own routes, often based on things I learn from local cyclists in the different areas, rather than using the ACA routes, which don't suit my style of touring as well these days. (I prefer emptier roads and don't mind 100+ miles between services, etc.)

You may want to check out the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) site. They sell maps for Route 66 - this would take you from northeast to west across Oklahoma. If you didn't need to include Arkansas in your tour, you could follow the Transamerica Trail (maps for sale from Adventure Cycling) from KY through IL and MO and intersect with Route 66 and follow it through OK. The ACA maps are a "must-have" resource for me; not only do they give you a detailed cycling map, they tell you where you can camp or find lodging and where stores and restaurants are located. Best of luck with your upcoming tour

I'll be interested in this, since I'm hoping to do a tour later this year that would include riding from my home in Kentucky, down to and then across Arkansas, and then across Oklahoma. Those are two states I've never toured (or ridden in at all.)

If you know of any especially good resources about those two states (especially Oklahoma), I'd appreciate it if you could point me to them.

Thanks,
Jeff

Sounds like a great trip. We'll look forward to following along. I doubt we'll be crossing paths with the same people as we did last year - but unfortunately missed you and Doc by one day! It was fun for us to run into folks we had read about in your journal. We were only on the Northern Tier for a short part of our route, but it felt as if we were part of the Summer 2021 Northern Tier club.