June 10, 1982

By ROB KERBY
Of the World Staff

JAY - It was some hill.

Out in the thick woods of the Grand Lake o' the Cherokees valley, FreeWheel '82 bicyclist discovered a hill that refused to be climbed.

Blacktopped, but sprinkled with gravel, it went straight up.

Then, it got a little steeper.

"I just walked it," said Mrs. Donna Rhodes, of Bartlesville, wading with several hundred riders at a beach near Zena. "And even that was hard. You walked one step up and slid two steps down."

Picnicking at a park in the Lakemont Shores resort area, discount store 5-speed riders Dick Phillips, 62, and wife, Frances, 55, said they walked. "We rested every 20 paces," said Mrs. Phillips.

Lance Stevenson, 13, pushing his 10-speed, walked.

Gordon Gibson, 48 of Oklahoma City, towing his expensive French bike, walked.

"I walked," said 3-speed rider Bill Nix, 49, of Tulsa. "I got a third of the way up and stopped to rest and set the front brake - but it still started to slide."

The hill - in the rural hills between Jay and Tia Juana - had been dubbed "Bob's Hill," after Tulsa bicycle Club Past-President Bob England. This spring, the bike club tested Wednesday's section of the route and pronounced the hill worthy - particularly after England came to a dead standstill on his 15-speed hill-climbing bike, then fell over backwards, as he attempted the climb.

Of course, the hill was conquered by some riders.

"I didn't even know that was the hill," said Mrs. Nickie Hall-Hensley, 51, of Tulsa. "Everybody told me there were about 10 bad ones and I wondered as I struggled up, 'Gee, what will the other ones will be like?' "

Lance Agnew, 25, of Tulsa, climbed the hill on his first try, as did Art Matthews, 51 of Tulsa, and Josie Moen, 26, of Grand Forks, ND.

Steven Wilson, 29 of Pasadena, Texas, walked - forlornly pushing an experimental, low-profile bicycle which he built. Racer Jean Paul Childress, 13, succeeded after three tries.

Mark Pepito, 27, of Anaheim, Calif., gave up after two tries and waded.

The Independence Bicycle Shop repair truck from Independence, Kan., didn't make it - without a little help. Owner Larry Sharp had to have the stalled truck towed up by local four-wheel-driver truck driver Richard Williams, 18.

And there were some riders Wednesday who weren't content with a mere 45 miles of roller coaster hills into Jay, the Huckleberry Capital of the World.

Gene Colling, 16, and Doug Cluck, 31, both of Tulsa, tackled another 76-mile loop that FreeWheel volunteers had scouted. They and several others pedaled to Colcord, then east into Maysville, Ark., and south West City, MO - a total of 121 miles for the day.

Wednesday night, riders camping in the Jay City Park got more than the the gospel music they expected. A series of torrential rainstorms left campers soggy, tents and camping gear wet and water standing on the level campground.

The National Weather Service issued a warning of another heavy rainstorm headed for the Jay area so local officials evacuated the sit and moved campers into an old gymnasium and the Jay Community Center.

The rainstorm, however, veered to the east and some of the more adventurous returned to the campground, but several hundred people spent the night in the temporary facilities so they could dry out before heading on to Stilwell Thursday.

FreeWheel '82: the Cherokee Trip is sponsored by the Bartlesville Pedalers, the Tulsa Wheelmen, the Tulsa Bicycle Club and the Tulsa World. It is a Diamond Jubilee Event, celebrating Oklahoma's 75th anniversary of statehood.

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