45 km

When we moved to Victoria I started looking for trails to run and I found a documentary on the Finlayson Arm trail races. (Check out the video to get an idea of the terrain.) I wasn’t interested in entering the race itself but I was curious about the route. Using parts of that race route plus other trails I pieced together a long trail run, staring at Goldstream, going north over Holmes and Jocelyn peaks, then south up and over Mt. Work, and then to Thetis Lake. From there it was another 10 km home on the Galloping Goose trail.

Shelley and I gradually explored the route in a series of weekend outings where Shelley would hike and I’d run a section of my route out and back. The trails are a lot hillier than my usual routes around Victoria and the first few outings were a bit rough on my legs. But after a few sessions my legs got more accustomed to it. Finally, as a dry run I ran the second half of the route, up and over Mt. Work to Thetis Lake and back home. That went well and I figured I was as ready as I was ever going to be.

Shelley dropped me off at the start (the Goldstream campground) and I got away at 9am. I chose to go around Mt. Finlayson instead of up and over since I didn’t want to punish myself too much right off the start.

Four hours later ...

Shelley met me halfway (on Munn Road) so I could refill my water and restock with bars and gels. I had a slight headache when I reached the car. Not knowing the cause I gobbled water, food, salt, caffeine, and acetaminophen. One or more of those seemed to do the trick and the headache went away. I stayed in good spirits the whole way, so I must have been getting enough calories and burning enough fat to keep my blood sugar up.

On the second half I stubbed or snagged my toes several times on the rocks and roots and came very close to wiping out. With my legs getting tired I likely wasn’t lifting my feet as much. And I might have been losing my attention a bit too. The last thing I wanted was to damage myself so I worked on staying focused.

Originally I thought the route was 50 km but I had measured it wrong and it was closer to 40. I added a bit at the beginning and it looked like 43 km. In the end it turned out to be 45 km which was a nice round number. (50 would have been an even nicer round number, but my legs were happier to not have an extra 5 km.)

I carried two 500 ml soft flasks in my running vest. With one refill halfway, that was about right. The cooler weather helped not getting dehydrated. I put Tailwinds in my water for electrolytes and calories. I averaged an intake of about 200 calories per hour. As expected, my appetite dropped in the second half but I still managed a couple of gels and a UCAN bar. I used the tracking on my inReach mini so Shelley could follow where I was. I carried my phone, but there isn't service everywhere. I also carried a rain jacket and wind pants. It wasn't a lot to carry, but it was enough to run with for that long.

On these trails I depend heavily on the map and route on my watch (Garmin Fenix 7). There are lots of little trails and it's very easy to take a wrong turn. A paper map, or even using my phone would have been a lot harder and slower. With my watch I just had to glance at my wrist to see which way to go, and to confirm I was on route. From an orienteering perspective it's cheating, but from a running perspective it was great.

I originally guessed / hoped for about 7 hours for 43 km. It ended up being 7:20 for 45 km (6.5 hrs moving) which was pretty close. I was slower on the first half because it’s a lot hillier, and faster on the second half, especially the final 10 km of pavement. My slowest kilometer was 14 min slogging up Mt. Work and my fastest was 5:30 min on my final kilometer "sprint" to the finish.

My legs were sore the next day, but other than that I was remarkably unscathed - no blisters, no knee or hip problems. Not bad for 62. Trails are often easier on you than pavement - you're going slower, and there's more variety and less pounding. Overall it was a fun day.

King's Pond

In a short video about fancy ducks in Victoria, they went to King's Pond to see Wood Ducks. I'd actually run by this pond, but I hadn't looked past the masses of Mallards. So Shelley and I stopped by when we were in the area. Typically, someone was feeding the ducks so there were lots of them on the path. But sure enough, amidst all the Mallards were a few Wood Ducks. This one came straight towards us and into the water.

There were some great reflections in the water to give them a nice background. (Although there was a lot of debris floating in the water, so it wasn't as clean a background as I would have liked.)

I'm not sure if this guy was showing off for the females or to intimidate the other males. (As usual with birds, the males are the flashy ones.) Nice pattern on the underside of the wings.

There were also a few American Wigeons around. Pretty feathers on their backs.

And some very active Ring-necked Ducks. They're also known as "ring bills" because the ring around the bill is much more noticeable than the cinnamon colored ring around their neck.

There were also some turtles out sunning themselves on a log. (According to a sign, the log was installed by volunteers, specifically for the turtles.)

This one was right at the edge of the path where I could get a good closeup.

Unfortunately, these turtles (red-eared sliders) are a non-native invasive species. Until recently they were all released pets, which explains why I've never seen really small ones. But apparently they have started to breed in southern Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. This wouldn't be so bad except they are out-competing the native Western Painted Turtles.

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Horsetails

There are masses of Horsetail ferns along the old rail tracks by the E&N path. They seem a bit out of place since they usually grow in damp shady areas, and this is neither. I wonder if there used to be a wet ditch beside the rail tracks that was lost when they built the E&N path.

Horsetails are interesting. They are "living fossils", once dominant, now an oddity. I think these are Great Horsetails. They reproduce by spores instead of seeds, and what you can see in this photo are the spore producing stalks that don't photosynthesize. After releasing their spores they die and are replaced by sterile green photosynthesizing stems.

McKenzie Bight

The forest here really is quite magical.

This was on a loop hike down to the beach on the McKenzie Bight trail and back up on the Cascade and Timberman trails. We've definitely been enjoying the local hikes. The McKenzie Bight trail (below) is quite wide and gradual. The Cascade trail is steeper and narrower.

Down on the beach it's always fun to poke around and see what you can find.

Of course, there was water and reflections.

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Harlequins

Harlequins are another small diving duck, less common than Buffleheads. They're not as colorful as Wood ducks, but still quite pretty. I had seen them a few times when I was running around the harbor, but not when I had my camera. The other day, at the end of a run, I spotted a pair of them near home. I ran home, grabbed my camera and the long lens, and headed back. I wasn't sure if they'd still be around by the time I got back. As I approached the spot, I was happy to see they were still there. But just as I arrived, three small girls ran down to the beach yelling and jumping around excitedly. I was sure the ducks would move on, but the girls and the ducks ignored each other completely. On the other hand, despite moving slowly and quietly, as soon as I pointed my camera at the ducks they would start to move away. Maybe I should have run around yelling but it makes it hard to take photographs.

I realized afterwards that I had focused almost entirely on the colorful male. I had to search through my photos to find one showing the female.

The male seemed to be quite successful at catching crabs to eat. I feel sorry for the crabs sometimes, they seem to be popular food items with the river otters, gulls, and ducks. The otters and gulls at least break them up to eat, but the ducks seem to swallow them whole. Better them than me!

They spent a fair bit of their time cruising around with their heads in the water, presumably looking for those tasty crabs.

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Magnolia

We are lucky to have lots of flowering plants and trees around our townhouse complex. My favorite right now is the magnolia I can see outside the window from my desk. There are quite a few kinds of magnolias but to me, this is one of the prettier ones. There are ones with similar flowers, but they are plain white. And there are ones with much bigger flowers, but the flowers start falling apart almost as soon as they open.

The fuzzy flower buds are a a distinctive feature. You can see the remnants around some of the flowers. I was surprised that they developed in the fall.

I like the centers of the flowers. They remind me a little bit of the center of water lilies.

It's quite an impressive mass of flowers. The cherry trees are fantastic too, but their individual flowers are quite small.

If you look closely in the bottom middle window you can just see the white end of my desk.

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Buffleheads

Buffleheads are small diving ducks that are common along the shore in Victoria. They tend to dive a lot, making them hard to photograph. But breeding season was distracting these ones and they were spending more time on the surface showing off and chasing around. They are in the same genus as the Common Goldeneyes on the river in Saskatoon in the winter.

Usually the male's heads just look black, but when the light is right they are an iridescent green and purple.

The females are smaller and plainer.

This next one was at the end of a brief bout of mating, the male holding on to the feathers on the females head. The female was completely under water for most of it.

This isn't a great shot of the bufflehead, but nice reflections :-) Their black and white coloring is actually quite good camouflage here.

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Neighborhood Activity

I was sitting at my desk when I heard crows making a fuss outside. I looked out in time to see a large bird landing in the tree across the street. At first I thought it was the neighborhood Great Blue Heron which visits that tree. But a mob of crows was harrassing it, and they don't usually make much fuss over the herons. I got the binoculars and realized it was a juvenile Bald Eagle. (They don't get a fully white head till they are four years old.) And there were actually two Bald Eagles in the tree.

You don't realize how big the eagles are until you see them beside something like this crow for comparison.

The eagles didn't seem too worried about the crows, but they still ducked and flinched when the crows dive bombed them.

The eagles left after a few minutes, but then one of them returned and seemed to settle in, so I grabbed my camera, put on the long lens, and went out in the yard. It was quite far away, and the light wasn't great, but I managed to get a few shots.

These are the first Bald Eagles I've seen in the neighborhood.

Coffee Tools

I'm a minor coffee geek. I'm not super serious about it but I like to have a decent machine and buy good beans. I recently bought a shiny new coffee machine. (A Quick Mill Pippa from Espresso Dolce in Vancouver)

I really like the machine but it came with a cheap plastic tamper. How does that fit with selling quality and craftsmanship?

Victoria has a strong coffee culture, with numerous roasters and coffee shops. But I hadn't seen anyone selling tampers. I thought about ordering one but looking at them reminded me of the custom shaving brushes made by Scott Bungay, our neighborhood bike repair / machine shop. (He'd already serviced our bicycles and fixed a metal wine rack for us.) I sent him an email describing what I wanted. It turned out he was a fellow coffee geek and knew exactly what I was talking about. (Coincidentally, he had the same brand of Italian coffee machine as me, although a higher end one.)

I thought the Damascus steel he used for some of his shaving brushes would make a nice tamper. And he happened to have a stainless steel tamper end that would fit well. We had a chat and worked out a design. I thought with the non-standard materials, a classic handle shape would be a good fit.

Scott sent me some photos as the project progressed, starting with the raw cylinder of steel.

It's interesting that the Damascus pattern is hardly visible until it goes in an acid bath, to reveal the final pattern. We decided to add the grooves to give a little texture to the piece.

As a solid chunk of steel it definitely has some weight to it. As Scott said, "you can let the tool do the job" [of tamping]. It's pretty much the opposite extreme from the plastic tamper. It wasn't cheap, but it's beautiful and unique, and I got to support a local artisan and fellow bicycle and coffee lover.

PS. Of course, a good grinder is the other essential coffee tool. I've got a St. Anthony's Millwright hand grinder that is both attractive and functional.

Reflections

A late afternoon walk along the water led me to indulge in a few reflection photos.

And a final shot that isn't reflections but has a similar feel.