Walk 133: Warm with unruly dogs

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.

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

Walk 132: A late spring stroll, with bonus photos

I decided to go out for a walk on the river trail, and so I wouldn’t be bothered getting hot ‘n sweaty, I dressed to run. I even pondered a short run, but it was mid-afternoon on a Sunday and opted not to.

I walked to the lake but stopped to take a few photos, so did not record it as exercise. The walk back I did record, the stats are below.

Here are the photos:

Stats:

Walk 132
Average pace: 9:09/km

Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 4.02 km
Time: 36:43
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 22°C
Humidity: 50%
Wind: light
BPM: 109
Weight: 168.1 pounds
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255
Total distance to date: 939.01 km

The ducks and the river

Lower Hume Park had several sudden ponds due to the rain over the past day and a bunch of mallards were there to take advantage of it. Better than swimming in the Brunette River, which was very shallow a few days ago and is very not shallow right now, as the photo below indicates.

Proof of ducks (and a crow). This is a crop zoomed in to 93% and the best you’re going to get on a crusty old iPhone 12:

Some photos, February 15, 2025

Yeah, I already posted photos. Here’s more! These are scenery shots from today’s walk.

Brunette River, with lingering bits of snow.
See where the river bends in the first photo? This is the view from around that bend.
This tree bridge is a bit more slippery than normal.
Snowy trail. Not as slipery as it looks!