4K

Final paddle of the season, I think. Between the early sunset, wind, and water temperature, a sit-on-top kayak is just no fun in October. Managed to do about 4K today before deciding that numb toes weren't any fun. Thankfully had the forethought to bring wool socks and a toque. Brr!

Kayaking w/ Orcas

Trip highlights, as tweeted:

In bed for the night @ Telegraph Cove. Delicious power outlets all in use. Have 2 go 4 days on a single charge as of tomorrow. 10:05 PM Aug 8th

full page map

Paddled 4 hrs today. No orcas or whales yet, but saw porpoises and sea lions! And kelp... Lots of kelp. 5:03 PM Aug 9th

Great day 2. Paddled 2x today while wife slept. Still no whales seen, more jumping salmon. Couple pods went by after moonrise, blowing. 12:02 AM Aug 11th

5 orcas w/ baby. 5 porpoises. 2 sea lions. 1 mink. 2 kickass guides. 10 new campers. 1 tricked out camp. Cedar hot choc. P'butter smores. 11:29 PM Aug 11th

Blackberry != rugged. Add humid climate in north east end of Vancouver island & keeps takng photos instd of letting me check messages. 11:34 PM Aug 11th

Last day (4) on Little Sofia Isl.: too many orcas to count, in groups up to 10! Also porpoises, purple starfish, & a curious seal. 12:00 AM Aug 13th

Great thanks to Larry, Chantalle, and Eduardo from orcaseakayaking.com for a most memorable trip! 12:09 AM Aug 13th

50K

To and from mom's place to help her put eyedrops in her dog, 8K.

Grocery trip, 6K.

Out to Pickering along the waterfront, dinner at Subway, and home, 36K.



Burned roughly 3400 calories, according to Trimble Outdoors (and extrapolating the additional 14K not logged).

A few pics posted via UberTwitter are here, here, and here.

31K

After a two-week hiatus from cycling/paddling due to work, wii, and general sloth, today I finally got out and mowed the lawm (second time this season!) and biked 31K - from home to Danforth/Victoria Park, south to the lake, across Queen, and home along Kingston Rd.

Disappointingly, my GPS took its sweet time connecting (probably due to cloud cover or SkyNet was busy elsewhere) so the route map is incomplete.

Another 50K

Friday: 35K, including 4K with mom trying to get her back into cycling.

Sunday: 15K in 38 mins, using both bike computer and AllSport GPS. Here's how the two compare:

CatEye Velo 8

Time: 38:31
Dist: 15.25km
Avg: 23.7km/h
Max: 44.5km/h
Cal: 262.0

AllSport GPS

Time: 38:08
Dist: 15.225km
Avg: 23.9km/h
Max: 45.6km/h
Cal: 1049

This says two things: it takes about 0.025km for the GPS to lock in, and AllSport has a much friendlier calculation for burned calories. No idea which is more accurate, however.

Three Days In Massey: Paddling, Cycling, Hiking, and Rockclimbing

Drove up with the wife and dogs Monday to visit friends in Massey, Ontario. On the way, we passed through thunderstorms powerful enough to knock out power for several blocks in Bradford.


Tuesday I drove over to the River House B&B to rent a canoe, then, with the dogs in their new Outward Hound PFDs, paddled from their put in to the beach at the mouth of the Riviere Aux Saubles (Sauble River) and back.


The trip down the Spanish River ended up being a beautiful 11K trip - the thunderstorm I was expecting at noon or earlier held off until about a half hour after we all got out of the river and back to Black Creek Equestrian where we were staying. Unfortunately, I'd been expecting a short run on the river and overcast skies, so I got rather badly sunburned. Ah, well, next time I'll bring sunscreen instead of leaving it in my duffel at the farm.

Wednesday I set out to go mountain biking, but with the rain the night before the trails behind the farm were pretty intractable for my road-friendly hybrid Specialized, so I parked it against a tree and went off the trail for some rock climbing instead.


I'm loving my newly purchased AllSport GPS for BlackBerry (@trimbleoutdoors), which helped me greatly find my way out of the woods after I veered off the path in search of the sounds of running water.


By the way, if you haven't seen the new features in Picasa Web Albums, check out the map of my paddling/hiking this week, which supports Google Earth & Google Maps.

5x5 Week

Decided to try paddling at least 5K every day this week.

Monday: 4.9K

Tuesday: 5.4K

Wednesday: 7.2K + a 6 min swim & a quick jog up and down the bluff from Bellamy Ravine to Sylvan Park. The lake is definitely warming up.

Thursday: 6.2K, according to Trimble Outdoors' AllSport GPS (downloaded OTA from BlackBerry App World). Trip map here.



Friday: 8.9K, from Galloway Rd past the water filtration plant southeast of Beechgrove Dr to the bridges at the south end of Colonel Danforth / Lower Highland Park. Max speed 8.6K/h, according to AllSport. Very brief dip in the lake at dusk, followed by a brisk counter-current paddle back home.

UPDATE: Here are some photos taken throughout June.

6+19

Friday: quick trip to and from Bellamy Ravine, including a brief catnap on the lake & a very brief swim just before dusk. Chilly but invigorating.



Saturday: beat Plants vs. Zombies. Rain sucks.

Sunday: Hiked up the Bluff w/ the dogs to test out Google Lattitude's accuracy. Not bad, but I think it's time to score a copy of Allsport GPS or Trimble Outdoors for my BlackBerry, if they work in Canada.

Quick 19km ride to and from Pickering in about 50 mins. Great speed on the way there (27km/h, terrible on the way back. Average 22.5km/h.

Rouge Beach to Frenchman's Bay

Beautiful day on Lake Ontario today. The wife and I did 7km from the put-in at Rouge Beach park over to the channel markers just outside Frenchman's Bay in about an hour and a half.

2x8

Finally slept enough to have the energy to get out paddling today, after a brief paddle a couple weeks ago that ended when I discovered a capsized kayak a little way out from me.

Altruistic thoughts aside, I towed it in to shore thinking, "hey, free boat!" only to discover that its owner was on the shore wondering how he might ever recover his boat. I lent him my Wheeleez so he could lug his leaky boat up the hill to civilization and back to the store from whence it was acquired.

So, today was the first time this season I actually managed to cover some distance on the water: from Bluffer's Park to my close-to-home put-in at the bottom of the big hill south of Galloway Rd, in under 2 hours.



After dinner I cycled the 8K back to Bluffer's to retrieve the car.

66K as I turn 33

Last week: 10K quick trip around the neighbourhood.

Friday: 31K trip to Pickering and around Scarborough.

Sunday: 6K from Gerrard/Coxwell to Bloor/Sherbourne, then 19K back home.

2009 Season Opener

After a total slacktastic winter, involving only a single use of my bike trainer, followed by a trip to California for EclipseCon '09 + meetings w/ my new teammates from Red Hat, JBoss, and Exadel, and then being sick for most of April, I finally got myself outside for my first ride of the season. There's nothing as exhilarating as a ride in the rain!

Unfortunately, I seem to have misconfigured my bike computer, so pushing myself as hard as I could, I only managed a reported average speed of 11.7km/h over 13km in a 66min period. Google Maps clocks the ride as being more like 21km.

If you ever want to inspire/motivate/depress yourself, try setting your computer to a larger tire size.