May 24, 2022
Day 4, Wister Lake to Wilburton
Road Closed to Thru Traffic? Surely They Don't Mean Bicycles...
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Climbing Today; 1,346 ft Climbing to Date; 6,723 ft
(Because we stayed in a cabin at Lake Wister State Park last night, Doc and I actually rode less than shown yesterday and more than shown today)
Today was a great ride to finish the loop. There were no major climbs, just a continuous set of rolling hills. We lucked out on the weather; it rained moderately hard for only a half hour or so, most of the time it was just overcast, and the last 7 miles we had only a light sprinkle. Shortly after I finished and drove away from Wilburton I was in a heavy rain, and a bit to the north there was flooding - so we really did get lucky!
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So does Bigfoot ride a bike? Of course he does, as illustrated by my Bigfoot socks below;
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Child-of-mine #3 chastised me for not taking these socks with me on the tour - she got them for me as a present a few years ago - but on tour I have started wearing knee-high compression socks, so that explanation got me off the hook. But I should have taken them along to amuse the others in the after-ride hours.
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But back to today's adventure. Doc and I had to ride 6 miles to reach the point where everyone camped last night, so we were on the road about 7:40. At 8:30 we met up with the others and commenced heading towards our second breakfast in the town of Summerfield. It was necessary to venture off route about 0.7 miles to do so, but it was well worth it. The timing was good too, because the rain commenced in earnest about 4 miles prior, so we not only got a good breakfast, we also got a chance to get out of the weather.
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Today's ride, like most of this tour, was on lightly traveled rural roads. The necessary highway travel has been mostly light traffic as well.
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Today's moody weather made for beautiful scenery in the mountain springtime.
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At one point, the road was closed and we had to choose whether to divert from the planned route. Most folks elected to ignore the sign rather than take the detour.
As it turned out, the road really was closed and motor vehicles could not get through. But us cyclists were able to go over and around a couple of concrete culverts being installed - fortunately, the construction workers were understanding.
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We rolled into Wilburton and made our way back to Eastern State College where we had parked. It seems like we just got started, and now the tour is over! New friends were made, and perhaps I'll see them again on a future tour. We were all tired and ready to depart for our respective homes before the next wave of rain commenced. Kudos to the KAMO folks who made this tour happen, it was a very pleasant experience. I'll have a few concluding thoughts in the next section.
Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km)
Total: 156 miles (251 km)
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