I pondered what to do today: Regular 5K? Wee 2.5K? 5K but short loop? In the end, I did a regular 5K but adopted a more moderate pace from the outset–the first km was a leisurely 6:13/km and I was remarkably consistent, only picking up the pace a bit for the final lap and ending with an overall pace of 6:11/km. Slower than usual, but it was also warmer and I am clearly not at 100% capacity for stamina post-chest cold yet.
I didn’t have any issues, though, thanks to the more modest pace.
A snake almost got squished, though, as the title notes. I was running through one of those patchy sun/shade areas and did not see a garter snake sunning itself in one of the sunny patches until the last moment. I lengthened my stride into a ind of step/jump to get over it, and it was only as I passed above that the snake finally moved and slithered off the trail. A lucky snake!
Large stretches of the run were curiously quiet, too. I don’t think I saw anyone else on the trail for the first 3 km, then a bunch of people appeared on the Cottonwood Trail, where we all baked a little in the unrelenting sun (don’t worry, showers are called for tomorrow).
I also took a brief break at the Nature House, about halfway through the run, to get a drink at the fountain. This had no appreciable effect on my pace, good or bad.
Overall, it was nice to get back to my regular routine, but this is the most tired I’ve felt post-run in a good while.
View from Deer Lake Brook bridge, post-run.
Stats:
Run 940 Average pace: 6:11/km Training status: Productive Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 10:08 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 31:08 Weather: Sunny Temp: 21-22°C Humidity: 66-62% Wind: light BPM: 151 Weight: 165.8 Total distance to date: 6,532.5 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (127.5/262.5/390)
Ah, the joys of early summer: Warm weather and sun, light breezes, shady trees, and rowdy, barking dogs.
Wait, let me back up.
I decided to walk to the lake and back today (an 8 km round trip) and declared the walk back to be exercise, so I timed it on my Garmin. This just generally means I walk without stopping to take photos, admire the scenery, etc. I did all that stuff while walking to the lake.
For the most part, the second leg of the walk was fine, until I got to a group of people on the river trail with three dogs between them. One dog was on leash, the other two were not. All three dogs were kind of large. The two unleashed dogs were running all over the place, making it difficult for anyone else (pedestrian or cyclist) to navigate around them. Then they got even more, uh, unleashed and started circling and snapping at each other (playfully), ignoring everyone and everything else. Several times I had to stop, as they were giving me no way to move forward. One owner kind of waved his hands around, like he was vaguely trying to shepherd his dog. This seemed to have no effect on the dog.
The dogs eventually whirled enough out of my way for me to pass. Both owners had leashes in their hands, but their dogs were obviously too precious to be leashed–except when they get to the end of the trail and return to the sidewalk, where they will immediately leash their dogs because:
They don’t trust their dogs enough to not run into traffic and care about the dog’s safety.
But otherwise don’t care about anyone else’s safety with regard to what their dogs–which they already show they don’t trust, per the above point–will do.
Dog owners.
As for the walk, it was fine. Here are some pleasant photos, none of which contain dogs, rowdy or otherwise.
Sun, shade and riverA fallen tree forming a natural bridge on the Brunette River.The fish ladder and start of the Brunette River. A great blue heron is fishing at the end of the ladder.
Stats:
Walk 133 Average pace: 9:13/km Location: Brunette River trail Distance: 4.02 km Time: 37:05 Weather: Sunny Temp: 26°C Humidity: 42% Wind: light BPM: 113 Weight: 167.1 pounds Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Total distance to date: 943.03 km
Where: Centennial Beach, Beach Grove, Boundary Bay Dyke Trial (Delta) Weather: Partly sunny, 17-19°C
Boundary Bay: Sometimes it’s a bay, and sometimes it’s this.
My suggestion to start out at Crescent Beach/Blackie spit was thwarted a few km short of the target when traffic mysteriously came to a standstill. There were a lot of dump trucks and other vehicles ahead of us and they seemed to be turning around for some reason. We could see little flags on the road, but not enough to quite discern what had happened or was happening. We pondered taking another route in, but couldn’t be sure it wouldn’t also be blocked, so we headed to our original destination of Centennial Beach.
The weather was pleasant enough, with partly sunny conditions, but the wind was gusting regularly, which brought a delightful (?) challenge to shooting bugs and birds on bobbing branches.
This time, the raptor trail delivered a Northern raptor right up front and it swooped over the area numerous times, often while being harassed by blackbirds, because the area is clearly not big enough for all of them.
The tide was way out, so we got obligatory shots of the vastness of Mud Bay, while mostly avoiding the mud. Mostly.
House sparrows were out everywhere, as were various swallows, but shorebirds were in short supply at Centennial, which was perhaps understandable, because the shore was effectively about an extra km out.
The behaviour of bugs was notable on this outing. We observed what appeared to be a BC miner bee (which looks like a bumblebee with “pollen pants”) being regularly assaulted in the sand by another bee. Examination of the shots left me uncertain what exactly was going on. The beat-up bee didn’t seem to be interested or perhaps capable of flying off, and a few of the rasslin’ poses were of the variety that would make young, uncertain bees uncomfortable, if you know what I mean.
The promised afternoon sun did not really materialize, but the hazy clouds still allowed decent illumination. We moved on to Beach Grove and the Boundary Bay Dyke Trail, which we haven’t visited in a while.
We saw more insects getting it on, specifically a pair of amorous red solider beetles, and a couple of mud dauber (?1Nic did extensive interweb research to ID the various insects and what we discovered is that a) there are a lot of types of insects, like way too many and b) this makes them very challenging to ID) wasps that were connected in a way that suggested love was in the air and in even closer proximity to them.
But what we mostly saw were Savannah sparrows, and plenty of ’em. I got some of my best shots of these pretty boys, along with more horny bugs, some elusive common yellowthroats, and an American goldfinch sitting atop a tree, which I pointed out to Nic. I had my kit lens on the camera at the time and it took off before I could switch lenses, but Nic got some shots, thus ending his curse. For now.
I also had a red soldier beetle climb onto my shoe (the shots didn’t turn out, but I tried) and despite being very aware of the copious horse poop on the trail, managed to step in it twice. Still, if there is any poop you must step in, horse poop is probably the least offensive.
One of the ponds near(ish) to the trail had attracted no less than four different types of shorebirds, so we got our shorebird fix in a concentrated burst, with a few killdeer, lesser and greater yellowlegs and a least sandpiper, which was being mostly shy and keeping partly hidden in the grass.
In all, I was surprised at how many birds we saw, particularly on the dyke trail. And having the 400 mm lens definitely made for a better experience for me, as the birds are often not near the trail, so the extra reach is handy. Also, I remembered sunblock and despite the hazy conditions, probably would have burned otherwise, so yay for that.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
I’m mulling another redo of this blog’s look and I’m thinking of going all-in on retro. Not in a crazy way, like trying to simulate the <blink> tag or embedding MIDI samples, but something a little warmer, less corporate-looking.
I shall mull things like colour choices, fonts and assorted bits of whimsy. The downside of this is I am not a programmer and can’t just whip up some fancy CSS using my big brain, so the process will be slow, painful, etc. But possibly worth it.
I could do things like change from a basic white background. But should I?
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Warm, but pleasant.
Last Saturday, I got what turned out to be an early summer chest cold. How? No idea. Maybe I should stay in a giant plastic ball when I go outside. Anyway, this meant my chest got congested and I spent a lot of time coughing and trying not to cough. Monday and Wednesday’s runs were scrubbed, but I had tentative hope for Friday.
Friday is today and while I no longer sound like I’m going through puberty and the congestion is definitely clearing up, I originally planned to just walk to the lake and back, to get some exercise. Instead, I ended up doing a short 2.5K run, which seemed about right.
I managed a respectable pace of 5:45/km and a BPM of 150, which is a little higher than of late, but with good reason (and it’s still fine, even if I was totes healthy).
It was still humid enough that the sun was not an issue, and tree canopy shielded me much of the time, anyway. I made it almost to the first boardwalk, then turned around at about the 1.5 km mark, so I wouldn’t have far to walk back. I didn’t experience any issues and saw a garter snake sunning itself on the river trail afterward, which was nice. I crouched to take a photo and when I stood up, it slithered off. I felt bad, but maybe I saved its life by making it move and not getting run over by a mad cyclist.
In all, a nice way to wrap what was otherwise a not great week for exercise.
Garter snake sunning on the river trail, post-run (I ran, not the snake).
Stats:
Run 939 Average pace: 5:45/km Training status: Peaking Location: Burnaby Lake (CW, short loop) Start: 10:49 a.m. Distance: 2.50 km Time: 14:24 Weather: Sunny Temp: 20°C Humidity: 65% Wind: light BPM: 150 Weight: 167.1 Total distance to date: 6,527.5 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (122.5/249.5/372)
Like the title says, everything from flowers to (toy) bombs.
The toy bomb was kind of weird.
A toy bomb placed on a railing in Hume Park.Greenery along the Brunette River.Brunette River looking west.A pink rose on Fader Street.Fun fact: This used to be cut grass. It’s been left to return to a wilder state.Early summer flowers, June 23, 2025.
It’s very summer-like today, after the first week of summer was cool and a bit damp. A lot of people prefer the latter, even though we get it for about six months of the year.
There will probably be some fireworks going off later this evening.
The new sidewalks on our street are very bright in the sun.
I feel like more people cheat now than, say, ten years ago, possibly because more people are realizing they won’t get caught. This is not a good thing.
I have an itchy bug bite on my left leg. I have nothing in particular to help with this, except the power of my mind insisting it’s not really itchy at all.
I still love Bongo Cat. He is currently wearing a pineapple.
Apparently, Canadian patriotism is surging. A house a few blocks away is positively festooned with Canadian flags. I’m not sure how I feel about this, because nationalism generally leads to bad things.
I’ve seen reports that people are getting dumber. This feels right to me.
Am I getting dumber? My phone is often at 90% charge at the end of the day (even though it’s 4.5 years old). I think this is helping to preserve some brain cells.
When birding in Pitt Meadows, I went to check the temperature on my phone and it couldn’t pull the data in because of a very weak cell connection. It please me that such places exist, and you don’t even have to go too far to find them. Also, places where you can’t hear any traffic.
The good news is 1.1 pounds is probably too high to be a rounding error. The other good news is down is better than up. The less good news is 1.1 pounds is not a lot. But bonus adjacent-to-good news is I was down more and then toward the end of the month hit a five-day skid in which I gained, gained, gained. Maybe it was all muscle? Let’s find out!
(BTW, the low this month was 165.9 pounds, which would have put me down for the year. But alas.)
As you can see, there was little movement across any of the stats, which makes sense with the modest weight loss.
Halfway through the year, it’s becoming clear to me that my body is not shedding weight because I am taking in too many calories. This likely means (apart from snacking) that I am underestimating my calories, so I may try to be more precise on some of the usual stuff I eat and see what happens.
And less snacking, of course.
Stats:
January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds
Current: 167.3 pounds Year to date: Up 0.5 pounds
June 1: 168.4 pounds June 30: 167.3 pounds (down 1.1 pounds)
Body fat: June 1: 25.8% June 30: 25.6% (down 0.2%)
Skeletal muscle mass: June 1: 29.8 kg June 30: 29.7 (down 0.1 kg)
Where: Heron Cove, Pitt River, Grant Narrows Park at Pitt Lake, Sturgeon Slough (Pitt Meadows) Weather: Partly cloudy, 17-22°C
One of the many waterways in and around Pitt river/Pitt Lake.
It was a day of sloughs, creeks, rivers and lakes under a mostly sunny sky and temperatures that actually felt kind of like summer. Novel!
We started near Heron Cove and the name did not disappoint, as we saw two herons standing in a tree, an adult and a juvenile. The juvenile was acting strange and silly. You know how teens are.
From there we walked a trail that got more and more overgrown, showing a clear line on how far most people were willing to explore. We saw a ladybug on a frond of wild grass and after my camera refused to focus on it, I went manual and actually got a really nice shot. I’ll have to experiment more with manual mode on targets that are not madly flitting about.
Returning, we saw our first lifers, along with about a dozen other photographers with Very Big Lenses, namely a yellow warbler pair (you can probably guess what they look like) and a Bullock’s oriole.
Walking the other way, we saw our third (!) lifer, a black-headed grosbeak, which was sufficiently obscured that we never did see its face.
We later moved to Grant Narrows Park, at the south end of Pitt Lake. We didn’t have to pay for the pay parking because it was full, and parked with several dozen others alongside the road leading in. From here we got to see an osprey nest, which was just a little too far off the shore, even for a 400 mm lens. We could still see the baby dinosaurs in the nest, though.
Further up, a viewing tower was closed because it has been completely and utterly claimed by cliff swallows, who build these cute little cavity nests out of mud. Almost every nest was occupied and there were quite a few swallows flying around the tower and the general area. In fact, the only species we didn’t see that even shows up in this area were cave swallows.
Nic got an awesome set of shots of an adult feeding a giant bug to a younger swallow, which I totally missed because I was shooting scenery or something. The number of birds here surprised me.
We ended the tour of Pitt Meadows by walking along the Sturgeon Slough, where we saw a few kingfishers, including one trying to gulp down a large meal. We followed a pair of common yellowthroats for a bit, watched a big spider possibly catch a bug, watched a pair of butterflies getting it on, strolled past the inevitable golf course, and took many shots of the gorgeous scenery.
In all, a fine outing in which the lack of steady sun was probably a good thing, given we were in the open most of the time.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
The above link is the story I saw posted on Mastodon. I didn’t even read the whole thing before downloading Bongo Cat and if you also have an internet-addled brain that can’t read: It’s an idle “game” that sits on your desktop and every time you type or click, the Bongo Cat bongoes and registers the click. At regular intervals, you get items to wear on Bongo Cat’s head, like a chef’s hat or a pineapple. You can get different colours and other things, too. Apparently if you get dupe items you can trade or sell them?
All I know is Bongo Cat sits above my taskbar and is adorable. Sometimes I click the mouse on nothing just to watch it bongo.
Today’s run was book ended by intermittent showers, but fortunately it stayed dry for the actual run itself. The continuing lousy early summer weather meant there were few people on the trail.
But I also started quite late, because I was very unmotivated in the morning. By the time I started the run, it was already just past 1 p.m. I didn’t have any particular plan, other than just doing a regular 5K to round out the week.
I started with a comfortable first km and a pace of 6:02/km. This seemed maybe too comfortable, so I picked it up, ending with a final lap of 5:27/km, a difference of 35 seconds between slowest and fastest km, probably one of the most extreme gaps I’ve ever had (hence the title).
Even with the stronger finish and a respectable overall pace of 5:47/km, my BPM was still only 147. It seems my stamina is finally getting better again, woo.
There’s not much else to report–no issues body-wise, no weird aberrations in the weather or on the trail. I did notice a very small tear in the upper of my left show. It’s possible it snagged on something, as the right shoe doesn’t have a mirror-image hole that would suggest a structural defect/weakness.
Onward to next week and possible days without rain.
Still Creek, post-run, with bonus honkers and hissers.
Stats:
Run 938 Average pace: 5:47/km Training status: Productive Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 1:08 p.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 29:04 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 17°C Humidity: 72% Wind: light to moderate BPM: 147 Weight: 166.7 Total distance to date: 6,525 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (120/241.5/261.5)
