Ensatina Salamander

Shelley spotted this little guy on the way back from the campground washrooms. She came and got me and we almost didn't find it again. When she described it as "like a lizard, but slow", I figured it might be a salamander or newt. This is a kind I haven't seen before. It's a lungless Ensatina salamander which means it gets oxygen by absorbing it through its skin. It was early morning and quite dark in the forest so I used my headlamp to get a bit more light. It was about 8 cm (3 in) long. Unusually for amphibians, their eggs hatch directly into salamanders, skipping an aquatic stage.

Otters

The river otters are regular visitors along the shore near us. Usually I see them when I'm out running but for a change I was walking with my camera when I saw this one. (And it was relatively cooperative.)

Prints of the Week

This first one was from Butchart Gardens. While there may not have been many hummingbirds attracted to the flowers, there were a lot of bees. They are tough to photograph because they're constantly on the move, usually facing the wrong way, and hard to get enough depth of focus. This was one of the lucky shots. The flower color is a little too much, but it does make the bee stand out.

I think this next one is a Cross Orb-Weaver. There seems to be a lot of them around right now. This is one of the largest I've seen. You can judge its size from its prey which looks like a wasp or honeybee. I saw another one today with its prey similarly wrapped up. One in our yard that I nudged to try to get into a better position went into the "vibrating" motion that Wikipedia describes. I can see how this would throw off predators, it made it impossible to see it clearly.

Galloping Goose 50k

My latest “mission” (as a friend’s son calls them) was to run the length of the Galloping Goose Trail. The trail is actually 55 km long, but there’s no easy access to the end of it, so I planned to do 50 km of it. It’s a former rail line so it’s mostly flat with no steep hills. (Only about 200m of ascent and 300m of descent.) The last 13 km into Victoria are paved, the rest is smooth hard packed gravel.

The access I was planning to use was from the Sooke Potholes campground at kilometer 51. The campground was closed, which wasn’t a big surprise, but what I wasn’t expecting was that the locked gate was 2 km before the campground. I didn’t realize this at first and I was starting to wonder where the campground was and if I was on the right road. The extra distance wasn’t a big deal, I just adjusted my route through Victoria to keep my 50 km goal.

On the drive there we stopped to stash some water and a sign on the trail said up to one hour delays due to construction. Yikes! I hoped I wouldn’t be delayed that long. Closer to the construction there were signs for a temporary closure of the trail, but luckily that turned out to be the day before. I think I could have bushwhacked around the construction but I’m glad I didn’t have to.

The first 35 km went quite smoothly. The initial few kilometers were a little slow as I warmed up, but over the next few I caught up to my target pace and managed to maintain that pace (while running) the rest of the way. A lot of the time I was running slightly faster than my target pace so I'd walk for 10 or 20 seconds per kilometer. After 35 km it got tougher.

I carried a liter of water at a time and drank roughly .5 liters per hour with Tailwinds energy mix in it. I think that was about the right amount since I didn't seem dehydrated at the end. I tried to eat something every half hour or roughly every 5 km. (3 Huma gels, 2 Xact fruit bars, 1 Ucann bar). My plan was about 300 calories per hour, but it got harder to eat after 35 km, although I did choke down one last bar at 45 km.

Although I maintained my target pace while I was running, I took more breaks than I planned and my total elapsed time was almost 6 hours. (If this was a race, that would be the time that counted.) It definitely seemed tougher than my marathon last fall (faster 42km), or my trail run in the spring (slower 45 km). And that was despite doing more running mileage over the last year. I guess if I'm going to accept that some days are faster, I have to accept that some days are slower. And my main goal was just to run 50 km, which I accomplished.

My watch estimates "stamina". It says I started at 100%, which presumably means I tapered well, and it says I ended at 1%, or basically nothing left. I'm not sure how meaningful that is, but it matches how I felt! (My taper was about 10 days at roughly half my usual mileage.)

For some reason my quads and abductors were pretty sore by the end of the run. I'm still hobbling around a little the day after. That can be caused by downhills but there wasn't much of that. Maybe I need to train on hills more like I did before my 45 km trail run. Considering Vancouver Island is quite mountainous, Victoria itself, where I do most of my running, is relatively flat.

What's next? I don't have any more missions in mind, but I'm sure I'll think of something. While I'm impressed by people running 100 km or 200km, I'm not sure I can handle that. Maybe something back on the trails.

Thanks to Shelley for driving me to the start (and for the photo).

Butchart Gardens

A couple of weeks ago we went out to Butchart Gardens with my sisters. On top of wanting to have one last "summer" visit, they wanted to see the Dahlias since this was their peak time. Although only a small area of the gardens, they were quite impressive, with a lot of variety. Be prepared for an overdose of color!

Despite all the flowers, we didn't see many hummingbirds. I heard this one and finally spotted it in the top of a tree. And it even sat still long enough for me to switch to my telephoto lens.

At the other extreme, this bird kept approaching too close for the telephoto and I had to keep backing up. I think it's a juvenile Brown-headed cowbird. I'm not sure why it wanted to get so close. Perhaps people had been feeding it?

And finally, one of the many Hydrangia around this time of year. Apparently the small ones in the center are the "real" flowers and the larger flowers are sterile, for show to attract pollinators.

See all 23 photos in this batch

Oru Folding Kayaks

When we moved to Victoria we bought folding Oru Kayaks. We got the Inlet model, the smallest, simplest, and lightest of the models. (Check out the assembly video at the bottom of that page.) It’s short, wide, and flat bottomed. You won’t win any races in it. And with the open cockpit you don’t want to use in big waves. But on the positive side, it assembles in 5 minutes and it only weighs 20 lbs. You can easily pick it up with one hand. The carrying bag turns it into a bulky but light backpack. I’m tempted by the higher performance models but they are heavier and more complex to assemble.

In Saskatoon we had Evergreen Envy fiberglass recreational kayaks. At 36 lbs, they were lightweight for rigid kayaks, but still a lot heavier than these. And of course, to take them anywhere required a roof rack and lifting them up there. Whereas the Inlets will fit in the back of our Prius. (We couldn't take our old kayaks to Victoria anyway, because we had nowhere to store them.)

At first I wasn’t sure if we’d use them in the ocean or just stick to lakes. But when the water was calm it was too tempting to go in the ocean right by our townhouse. I can be on the water minutes from walking out the door. (I do keep an eye on the weather and the tides.) Because it's so easy, I've been getting out about once a week. And we've explored various other nearby sites on lakes and the ocean.

If the trade offs fit your situation, I’d recommend the Oru kayaks.

(That's our front yard on the other side of the hedge.)

Thanks to Shelley for the photographs. I love the Canada Goose fly by with the Olympic mountains in the background.

PS. Don't worry, I am actually wearing a PFD in the top photo, but it's a self inflating one you wear around your waist so you can't see it.