Run 968: Boardwalk bear

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run. Slightly warmer, sunny and a little more humid.

Today’s run was almost an exact mirror of Monday’s, with an identical overall pace of 5:43/km and only one second difference in overall time. Kind of weird!

Also weird was how I did not see any regulars again, though almost every runner I passed waved, so it was an extra-friendly outing.

I’d been feeling the Baker’s cyst since Monday’s run, so was mulling various scenarios, ranging from not running, to running the river trail and so on. In the end I did a full loop as per usual and it was fine. I followed my pattern of late, where the first two km are slower, then the last three get significantly faster. The knee was feeling a bit stiff after, but is recovering nicely post-run, so I’m not overly concerned.

Conditions were similar to Monday, but it was a bit warmer and more humid. This might explain my higher BPM of 153 (also, the CCW route is a bit tougher than CW, due to overall elevation).

Oh, and the bear! I had finished the run and was approaching the second boardwalk. A little ways before the boardwalk, I spotted fresh droppings right in the middle of the trail (coyotes and bears always do this), so I was on Bear Alert™. Sure enough, I rounded a corner and there was a sizeable black bear right at the end of the boardwalk, snuffling around for berries or something. It didn’t notice me–I was probably about 30–40 feet away, so I quietly backed up, then lightly jogged back to where the trail splits and detoured along the Freeway Trail, which is precisely as scenic as it sounds. Observe:

Towers! Wires! Traffic! It’s the Freeway Trail.

EDIT: I have now added another bear map, to illustrate approximate distance between me and the bear. Per Google Maps, it was probably around 60 feet when I spotted it.

A little blurry because I zoomed in all the way. ENHANCE. Figures not to scale, otherwise I’d be like 20 feet tall here.

While I would prefer my runs to be bear-free, they have at least been courteous enough to not show up until after my run is complete. There’s probably a decent chance of more sightings for the next month or so yet.

Still, bear or not, this was a fine mid-week effort.

Rowing pavilion, post-run. Smooth and reflective! Also, no bears.

Stats:

Run 968
Average pace: 5:43/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 9:52 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:44
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 15-16°C
Humidity: 88-84%
Wind: light
BPM: 153
Weight: 164.3 pounds
Total distance to date: 6,670 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (265/601/866)

Music: Jonathan Coulton (shuffle)

Fall shmall

Taken this afternoon. It was sunny (as you can see) and got up to 24C, like it was still summer!

(If the forecast is accurate, this may change soon, but I’ll hang onto it for now.)

I would have shot the view to the east as well, but there was a guy sunbathing on a chaise on the river’s exposed gravel.

Run 967: A sunny start to fall

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Clear skies, cooler temperatures.

Today is the first day of fall and fittingly, it was 14C for the run, my coolest start in quite a while. But not too cool. And definitely not Fonzie cool.

Going clockwise for a change, right from the 0K marker, I started out slower as has been the pattern of late, but not as slow as Friday. I also finished faster (5:23/km), so my overall pace improved to 5:43/km. Even better, the cooler temperature allowed me to lower my BPM to 147. Nice.

I didn’t experience any issues during the run. The back of the right knee felt a bit sore walking home, but it resolved fairly quickly. I will inspect for fluid later, as I’m in full lazy mode now.

Weirdly, I did not see any of the regular runners again. Maybe they all run clockwise, too. I did see one guy running with his shirt off. I would not do that, even if I had killer abs. Well, maybe if I had killer abs.

Anyway, a good start to the week and to Fall 2025.

For a change of pace, the lake as seen from the turtle nesting area, post-run.

Stats:

Run 967
Average pace: 5:43/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 9:06 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:45
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 14°C
Humidity: 84-81%
Wind: light
BPM: 147
Weight: 164.3 pounds
Total distance to date: 6,665 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (260/588/848)

Music: Pop Stuff (playlist)

Dark patterns and Windows 11 (and Samsung and OneDrive)

This is a story that is:

  • A breathtaking example of dark patterns and how not asking for consent from a user can lead to a tech-related catastrophe filled with bogus warnings and alerts.
  • A neat tale of dogged perseverance beyond what most people would do, with connecting-the-dots and searching saving the day.
  • A sad testament to what a big ol’ pile of poop Windows has become in its latest incarnation. For every good feature, it feels like there are two user-hostile ones added.

My own experience with Windows 11 has increasingly soured since its debut, which is a neat trick, considering an OS normally starts out kind of janky and unstable when it launches and smooths out over time. Instead, Windows 11 has become both increasingly fragile and obnoxious, with ads, dark patterns and AI shoved into every corner of it, even basic apps like Paint and Notepad.

Anyway, here’s the story of how OneDrive going rogue almost nuked someone’s Windows 11 installation. Enjoy!

Run 966: Birthday bunnies and snakes

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run. Pretty much like Monday, just Friday.

Today’s run was on a birthday, which is no big deal, but I was also dealing with some other baggage unrelated to my age, which was a bigger deal. At one point my Pop Stuff playlist played “Janie’s Got a Gun” by Aerosmith and the chorus of, “Run away, run away from the pain” was a bit on the nose.

I ended the first km at exactly 6:00/km and resigned myself to a slower run, but instead I managed to do a repeat of Monday and got faster as I went along, ending with 5:47/km overall, only one second off from Monday. Speaking of Monday, the conditions, start time, pace and pretty much everything else was nearly identical. A little weird.

But as a bonus, I saw three (!) guys running topless, something I did not expect to see at the tail end of summer. I also saw a cute brown bunny before it hopped back into the brush, plus a cute baby garter snake slithering across the trail while I was running. Shortly after I saw a full-grown snake near the side of the trail. It didn’t react to my presence, so I’m hoping it was just dozing and not, like, entering snake heaven.

I also saw fresh droppings, but no bears, coyotes or bobcats.

In terms of how I felt, I experienced no issues, everything held together. I skipped the run on Wednesday because my watch said Rest Day and I decided to obey, but it seems I’ve at least maintained after skipping it.

And now the weekend.

Still Creek, post-run. The early signs of fall are now starting to show.

Stats:

Run 966
Average pace: 5:47/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 9:56 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:06
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 17-18°C
Humidity: 80-75%
Wind: light
BPM: 153
Weight: 163.8 pounds
Total distance to date: 6,660 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (255/575/830)

Music: Pop Stuff (playlist)

My birthday: It’s like 16 Candles but reversed

Also, I never saw the movie 18 Candles, and apparently it has not aged well at all.

I, on the other hand, have aged reasonably well.

A curious side effect of abandoning all major social media platforms is none of my internet pals remembered my birthday, because normally Facebook just slaps a reminder in front of them. A small price to pay to be free of FB and its ilk.

Today will be like most Fridays–a run and then tacos for dinner. Which is better than tacos and the runs after. :drum:

Also, a final note: I have not been posting much lately because the site has suddenly gotten super-slow and crashy. Dreamhost support gave me some tips but basically said it’s on me to fix, though they did note that a lot more bots are scraping my site. Thanks, AI!

Also, I lied, here’s the real final note. I did a search on a cake with too many candles on it. There were many results, but I kind of like this one for the heroic attempt and the obvious compression artifacts, like it was made in 1997.

A few photos from Sapperton Landing, September 16, 2025

Also, it was weirdly hot for the middle of September, getting up to 28 or 29C today and feeling like 30C or higher. There was a pleasant breeze down at Sapperton Landing, so it actually didn’t feel too bad there.

I was going to take some scenery shots with my camera, but I brilliantly left both of my SD cards on my computer desk, so a couple of phone photos will suffice now1.

Fish mosaic, heavily post-processed in Luminar to surface all the mad detailz.
Was this plaque stolen? Removed for cleaning? I do not know, but hey, log boom, tugboat and river behind it!
A kooky 16:9 crop of a tugboat and log boom, with the Port Mann birdge in the background.
  1. Speaking of my phone, with the recent introduction of the iPhone 17 series, I am now officially five generations behind. Take that, Tim Apple, you would-be-dictator appeaser! ↩︎

Run 965: They promised me clouds, they gave me sun

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: The return of clear skies.

Under most circumstances, the title of the blog post would be a good thing, but when it comes to running, clouds are usually better than sun.

But today was an exception and the sun was actually fine, probably because it was relatively cool and humidity was a bit lower, which made a difference I could actually feel (I also sweated much less copiously than last week’s runs).

My plan was to adopt a slower pace for the start of the week and as usual, when my first pace came in a bit too casual at 5:59/km, I picked the pace up a bit, closing the run with a lap of 5:29/km and an overall pace of 5:46/km. This was slower than Friday (5:41/km), so I guess mission accomplished!

Although it didn’t bother me, I could feel the lump on the back of my right knee, named after Baker and rhymes with the game Myst. I suppose running regularly is not helping it to go away, but I will keep running and elevating my leg at night unless things gets worse. It does make me wonder when I might next try doing a 10K. I feel I have the stamina for it now.

And in another sign of the changing seasons, the tennis courts near the sport fields has put back its marshmallow (inflated) roof, where it will remain until late spring 2026. I must ponder what to wear for cooler fall running.

Still Creek still mostly still.

Stats:

Run 965
Average pace: 5:46/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 9:53 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:02
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 15-16°C
Humidity: 82-79%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 150
Weight: 163.8 pounds
Total distance to date: 6,655 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (250/562/812)

Music: Out of Time, R.E.M.

Birding, September 13, 2025: Real gardens and fake herons

Where: Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, Deering Island Park (Vancouver), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Clouds in morning, clearing in afternoon, 17-24°C

Van Dusen Botanical Gardens

I think this is Livingstone Lake, the main body of water at the gardens.

It was cloudy in the morning, so light was sometimes tricksy, especially in the more woody areas, but the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens provided a nice change of pace. There were many exotic plants and birds and rocks and things. There was a waterfall that looked nice and was being sketched/painted by multiple people. You could even climb to the top of it, where the illusion was shattered by a very conspicuous pipe feeding the water to the falls. Oh well.

Birds were not as plentiful, but I did get a good workout on using manual focus on several spiders hanging around (a theme that would prevail throughout the day). We did see some chickadees, flickers and a few others, so it was not a total bust or anything.

We also saw busts–of historical botanists!

Nic defied the odds and managed to find our way out of the hedge maze before the maniac with an axe could get us (seasonal, winter-only). We went to the Heron Pond, but it only had two fake herons. We did not see any real ones the entire day, a sharp contrast to All Herons All The Time last week.

Overall, it was enjoyable to finally check out the place (I’ve lived in the Lower Mainland since 1986 and have never been), even if the birb count was low.

Deering Island Park

View from the bridge to Deering Island Park, a small patch of land peons like us are allowed to visit.

After shooting all the spiders, Nic suggested we check out a quaint little place called Deering Island Park. It looks like this in Apple Maps:

Deering Island Park: Spiders, spiders, spiders! But no birds.

Technically we saw a bird or birds, but it was mostly more spiders. But by this time, the sky was clearing up and that meant two things: Better light for when we saw (hopefully) saw birds and sunburn, because neither of us wore sunblock.

The area is a curious mix of horse stables and swanky homes. The sign for the non-official trail near the actual park basically said, “We rich folks will let you, the poors, use this short trail, but don’t do anything funny or unseemly while here because we are just barely tolerating your presence as it is.”

If you keep going past the end of the trail, there is an even more unofficial one that connects to what seems to be a service road to the nearby golf course. In Kerrisdale, there is always a nearby golf course.

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

Land (mass) ho at Burnaby Lake, along with shorebirds and dwindling lily pads.

We ended our afternoon at Piper Spit, where we saw actual birds in multiples! Seasonal migrants are still a bit slow to arrive (The weather? Alignment of the planets?) and in some cases we only saw a single representative of a particular species, like what was probably the same coot we saw last time. There was also a single blackbird.

But the lack of new migrants was offset by oodles of dowitchers, who were even closer than normal to the pier, thanks to the ever-more shallow water and a landmass that is now the size of a small town. There were even a few killdeer splashing about. Neat!

In all, it was a pleasant wrap-up to a summer of birding. We’ll see how many more migrants fly in over the next few weeks.

The Shots

Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.

A few shots:

A black-capped chickadee on a sunflower at Van Dusen Botanical Gardens.
A long-billed dowitcher preening at Piper Spit.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Bewick’s wren
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • House sparrow
  • Northern flicker
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot (One! Again!)
  • Blue-winged teal
  • Canada goose
  • Great blue heron (but fake)
  • Green-winged teal
  • Hooded merganser
  • Killdeer
  • Long-billed dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern shoveller
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Some gulls (?)

Raptors:

  • None

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • One black squirrel
  • A lot of spiders

Run 964: Going slow, going fast

View from Cariboo Dam, prew-run. Even more humid, the blue sky was fleeting.

At first, I was going to take it easy on today’s run, as the suggested workout was a “recovery” run. Indeed, my first km was 5:50/km, which is a more relaxed pace.

But then I kept getting faster and by the end my final lap was a zippy 5:26/km and my overall pace ended up being 5:41/km.

I didn’t experience any issues, and even though humidity was an even higher 92% and only dipped slightly, the cooler temperature and clouds meant I did not sweat as much.

The trail felt lightly populated and I didn’t see any of the other jogging regulars–maybe I got in too early. The sun threatened to show between the 2nd and 3rd km and in those brief moments I could actually feel the air getting warmer, so I’m kind of glad the clouds moved back in.

Overall, it was a nice run and a good way to wrap up the week.

Kind of a silver/gunmetal thing happening here, looking east across the lake, post-run.

Stats:

Run 964
Average pace: 5:41/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 9:09 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:33
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 15°C
Humidity: 92-90%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 148
Weight: 164.3 pounds
Total distance to date: 6,650 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: ASICS Trabuco Terra 2 (245/549/794)

Music: Voices, Hall & Oates