My prints this week were a couple of photos from our recent trip to Waskesiu. I think the butterfly is a Northern Crescent (on a dandelion) and the big beetle is a Flower Longhorn Beetle (on a wild rose). I'm not sure what the smaller black beetle is.
These were taken on the Waskesiu river trail with the Olympus EM-1 and 12-200mm lens.
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| ready to go |
I've been thinking about running Grey Owl Trail for a few years. I'd paddled into Grey Owl's cabin but I'd never done it on foot. I felt like I was in decent shape for it so I started watching the weather forecast. It seemed like it was always either raining or too hot. Finally there was a forecast for a reasonable day - no rain and cool temperatures. There was a bear warning, but that wasn't surprising since this is bear country. I carried bear spray but thankfully didn't see any bears.
It rained most of the night - so much for conditions being relatively dry. Breakfast was instant oatmeal with raisins and a banana, washed down with coffee. I had the drive from Waskesiu to Kingsmere to let it settle. I got a little extra time since the road was slow - muddy and slippery.
It was cool at first, maybe 8c, I started out wearing my jacket, knowing it would probably be too warm before long. It stayed mostly cloudy but thankfully no rain other than a brief drizzle early on. Later, when it warmed up and the sun actually came out a bit it felt quite warm although it probably didn't reach 20c.
I carried a litter of water. That wasn’t enough but there was plenty of water around and I had purification tablets. The only flaw in that plan was that the water I picked up had quite a taste so I stopped drinking as much and only ended up drinking about 1.5 liters. But with the cool conditions and the moderate pace I didn't feel dehydrated at the end. In hindsight I could have just have carried 1.5 liters.
For fuel I used Tailwinds in my water and a gel once an hour - about 200 calories per hour. I had a couple of caffeinated gels for the second half of the run.
The trail was mostly pretty good. Wide and smooth at first, but that soon became single track. The main obstacles were the tree roots. You definitely had to watch where you put your feet. You really didn't want to sprain an ankle 20 km from the nearest road. There were also some wet sections which meant wet feet. I wondered whether that might lead to blisters but I didn't have any problems. Although described as having "steep sections", this is Saskatchewan and there were no major hills. In total there was less than 600m (2000ft) of ascent and descent - not a lot over this distance.
There were quite a few mosquitos around but they were fine as long as I was moving. I had put on sunscreen and insect repellent before starting but by the time I arrived at Grey Owl's cabin the repellent had all been wiped off my legs by wet vegetation and the bugs started to attack. It was good motivation not to stop too long.
The first half went quite smoothly. My pace was a bit faster than expected and I wondered whether I could keep it up for 40 km. I ended up only about 10 minutes slower on the return leg but it was definitely more of a struggle. I didn’t have any particular problems but my legs did not want to run. I found myself wishing for the uphills since I was walking them.
Parks Canada lists the trail as 19.9 km each way. My GPS watch said just over 38 km when I finished.
All in all, I was happy with how it went. My total time was 4 hrs 50 min and my actual running time (excluding stops) was 4 hrs 20 min. Not bad for an old fart.
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| mission accomplished |
Thanks to Shelley for the photographs.
With a macro lens there's wildlife everywhere :-)
Beautiful weather and my day off from running combined to get me out in my kayak on the river. It's always nice to see the pelicans a little closer up.
The sun was shining, so I decided to go for a walk by the river. (It was my day off running.) I took my camera but I didn't have any particular goals or expectations. Of course, once I got started I took a ton of photos.
When I first reached the river there were two pelicans cruising by. (with their breeding season "horns") They soon decided to move on. It looks like a quite an effort for these big birds to get into the air although they are certainly graceful enough in flight.
One pair of Canada Geese had a single lone gosling. I managed to approach reasonably close and then I sat patiently and they eventually came a bit closer. There is such a contrast between the big strong adults and the awkward little goslings.
A crow was also hanging around. I happened to catch it cawing and if you look close you can see the water drops coming out of his mouth. (The contrast between the bright sun and the black crow makes photos difficult.)
While I was sitting on the sand watching the birds, I saw an insect going zipping by on the sand. It looked interesting but I didn't get a good look. Luckily I saw several more and got some photos. I think they were Bronzed Tiger Beetles (also known as Common Shore Tiger Beetles, but Bronzed sounds better) True to their description they would alternate high speed sprints with pauses. The theory is that they move too fast for their visual system to keep up, so they have to pause to spot their prey. Whatever the reason, the pauses were what let me get some photographs. Surprisingly, I got these photos (and all the rest) with my telephoto (200 - 800mm equivalent). It focuses reasonably close, and the ability to keep some distance often helps with skittish insects.
I also spotted this spider running by, but it did not cooperate with any pauses in the open and I only managed this one shot. It was well camouflaged. I think it's some kind of wolf spider.
There were a few butterflies around, but this was the only one that stayed still long enough to photograph. I think it's a Silver-spotted Skipper.
I followed this Willet (a large sandpiper) as it foraged its way along the shore. It didn't let me get too close, but it didn't fly away either.
This mallard male, on the other hand, had found himself a nice spot to soak up some rays and was ignoring humans wandering by.
I'm usually not as much of a plant person but I'm a sucker for flowers. I think these are Common Silverweed (related to roses)
and Choke Cherry
I couldn't figure out what this shiny insect was. Seek is usually pretty good at id's but the closest it got was some kind of crane fly. I'm curious what the "clubs" on either side of its body are. Possibly the fruiting bodies of some fungus? The insect did seem quite lethargic.
Back home, this Blue Jay was showing off his coloring.
Nature never ceases to fascinate and delight me. It might seem that my focus is the photography, but that's really secondary to my love of nature. The photography just helps me focus my attention and see things I wouldn't otherwise. And to capture a record so I can savor it.
This week's long run was shorter - 20 km. I didn't have any particular pace in mind, just planned to go with how I felt. I'd been a little under the weather the last week, had even skipped one day of running, and still wasn't feeling 100%, so I wasn't expecting much.
I started off at a normal moderate pace, but as my watch displayed the pace for each kilometer, I noticed I was speeding up, although my perceived effort didn't seem any different. By the time I got to the last five kilometers, I was still feeling good and could see I had a chance to beat my best time on this route. That always motivates me to finish strong.
I ended up getting my best times for 1 km, 5 km, 10 km, and 20 km. (Since I've been tracking on Garmin, almost four years.) If I'd realized I was on such a roll I would have kept going for another kilometer and got my best half marathon time as well.
Curiously, my pace kept speeding up all the way to the end. So the fastest, 1, 5, and 10km were all at the very end of the 20 km.
My previous best 5 and 10k times were almost two years ago and I haven't come close since then. I've been wondering if I ever would. I'm running almost twice as much distance per week as I was back then, without the foot and knee problems, which should translate to better performance, but I'm also two years older.
I didn't cut a lot of time off my previous best - 5 seconds off my 5k time, 15 seconds off my 10k time. But the previous run was a total of 12 km on a level, straight out and back paved path, with no people to dodge. Whereas today's was 20 km on my usual mix of winding dirt single track along with paved sections, with about 500 ft of vertical, and the usual obstacle course of Sunday cyclists, dog walkers, and baby pushers. And today's 5 km was after running 15 km. Curiously, my average overall pace for both runs was exactly the same. However, because my heart rate was higher last time it rated that run as "highly impacting", whereas today's it rated as "base maintenance". That seems a little bizarre. Garmin's rating system is more a source of amusement than wisdom.
Last week I speculated I could do better if I tapered and had a cooler day. Purely by accident, I got that today. Since I'd skipped a day my weekly mileage was down a bit, and it was definitely cooler - about 11c when I started and 14c when I finished. It felt a little chilly at first (in shorts and t-shirt) but overall it was probably optimal. Although theoretically I was still recovering from last week's 30 km, that obviously didn't slow me down much.
And yes, I plugged today's 20 km time into the race calculator and it told me I should be able to beat my marathon goal time by 6 minutes - definitely promising. Of course, that's if I can arrange to have another best-in-two-years day!
I took this photo from my home office window as it was sitting on the back fence. I've noticed this Blue Jay around the neighborhood, identifiable by the ruffled feathers. But it wasn't till I saw the photograph on my computer that I realized it was standing on one leg. Some birds will stand on one leg, but given the messed up feathers, I wonder if it lost or damaged the leg. Perhaps it had a run in with a cat or some other predator. It appears to be able to fly normally, and seems to be managing ok. It seems like there are more Blue Jays around than there used to be, but maybe I'm just noticing them more. They always seem to have a lot of character.
30 km yesterday for my long run. Over the winter I only ran about 20 km on my long runs and that's short enough for me to do every week. But I usually don't go much further than that more than every other week. This week was my longer week.
I find if I run the same distance too regularly I get accustomed to it and then if I go farther it seems harder. After so many 20 km runs over the winter, it now feels "hard" to go further. Of course, it is harder to go further, but this feels different. I think it's probably a combination of psychological and physical. A few more longer ones will hopefully break me out of my rut.
It was going to be 25c, so I started my run at 8am when it was 15c. That's just about the perfect temperature for running, but by the end of my run it was 22c which is warm for running. According to one of the calculators, that temperature costs you 25 seconds per kilometer in speed. I wore my running vest and carried two 1/2 liter water bottles which I rationed out for the whole run. But my watch tells me I probably sweated 2 liters. I definitely felt dehydrated by the end. I sweated enough to leave salt stains on my clothes and vest. I used to be able to use the water fountains, but those have been shut down since Covid started. I'm not sure that's rational, but most people won't use them anyway. It doesn't help that I'm not really acclimatized to warmer temperatures yet.
I have a goal in mind for running a marathon distance (42 km). It's purely to give me something to aim for. I'm not really hung up on it. (Any more than I'm always hung up on things like numbers.) The big question is whether I can make that goal. It's a good goal in that respect, since it's on the edge of possibility. Some days I think I can do it, and some days I don't. Trying to extrapolate from shorter distances is questionable, but I plug my best half-marathon time into various race calculators and see what they say. Mostly they say I'm too slow. Today I averaged 6 seconds per km faster than my marathon goal pace for 30 km. So I plug that into the race calculators and this time they tell me, yes, you should be able to make your goal. That's promising. The problem is, at the end of my 30 km today, it didn't feel like I could have run another 12 km. I was 3 minutes ahead of pace, so I could have run 18 secs per kilometer slower for that 12 km. But it still seems improbable. I was pretty tired. But maybe it was a cooler day, and I tapered (took it easy for a week or so before), and if I kept a steadier pace. So I'm left still wondering, which is part of the fun.
PS. And yes, only a true geek would turn something as wonderfully physical as running into a series of math problems :-)
An evening walk by the river rewarded me with a few nice birds. There were several Spotted Sandpipers, but like many shore birds they were quite skittish and wouldn't let me get too close.
The warm weather is bringing out clouds of insects as you can see if you look closely in this next shot.
I heard the call of the Killdeer before I saw it. I knew I'd heard that call before, but didn't identify it until I saw the bird. They are only part-time shore birds, often found away from water as well. It was watching me as I slowly tried to move closer. But I'm not sure why it did that with its head turned 180 degrees!
Of course, there were Canada Geese around too.
I can never resist the reflections.
Down the back alley a flowering bush is poking through the fence.
And, of course, the dandelions are out in force. They're hated by the lawn fanatics, but I like them. They are an important spring source of nectar for pollinators. What looks like a single flower is actually a composite of many small florets. Curiously, they can produce seeds asexually, without pollination.
It started with the Yellow-rumped warblers in the tree outside my home office. They would arrive and hop around on a branch in clear view, inviting me to get out my camera, and when I did they would play hide and seek hopping around continuously so it was impossible to get a photograph.
But that got my camera out and I managed to get a couple of the other birds, including this White-throated sparrow.
It looked like it was feeding on the flowers on the tree, although the description says it eats the leaf buds. But they're not really leaf buds any more, the leaves are rapidly emerging.
Our patch of tulips usually has quite a few flowers despite our neglect, but this year there is only a single flower. It's quite a pretty one though.
When I was out on my run this morning I stopped to watch a muskrat on the river, right downtown. It stopped to feed on a dead fish. I was a bit surprised because I assumed they just ate plants, but I see they are omnivorous, which makes sense.
Coming back from a run, I found this American Giant Water Bug in the alley. It was lying on its back not moving, so I thought it was dead. I still picked it up carefully since they can give a painful bite. (The origin of their nickname "toe biter".) This photo was taken the next day after it died so I wasn't worried about getting bitten. They must be one of the biggest insects we get in Saskatchewan, and this was the biggest one I'd seen.
They live in the water, but they fly around in search of mates or just to disperse. Like moths, they can be attracted to street lights, leading to their other nickname of "electric light bug".
They are strong predators, able to catch and eat prey larger than themselves, including small fish. Their front legs look a bit like a praying mantis and serve the same purpose of grabbing their victims. As "true bugs" (Hemiptera) they inject digestive toxins into their prey and then suck their juices out.
Although they live in water, the adults are air breathing, keeping a bubble of air under their wings, exchanging it for fresh air at the surface using the two tubes you can see at the rear of the abdomen.
It revived in the house, maybe from the warmth. This was a bit of a nuisance because it wouldn't sit still for photographs. That made it impossible to do focus stacking so I stuck to flash and a small aperture for depth of focus. I was a little concerned that it would start flying around, but luckily it didn't. I don't think Shelley would have been impressed to have it loose in the house.
This is from a few years ago near Big Bend National Park in Texas, at the start of the Santa Elena Canyon. That's Mexico on the other side of the river.
