And on the 7th Day...

Today started with a beautiful walk with the dogs along the creek that runs through the U of T Scarborough campus, both in and out the water. The easiest way to get to this creek is to drive to Old Kingston Rd, park, and head north along the trails that track the water.

After some YouTube timewasting, including the discovery of Project Aiko -- a working female android prototype with the ability to read, do math, have a conversation, and learn -- I decided that it was time to get out of the house and do something useful. If a young engineer can build an android in his basement, the least I can do is get in shape so when SkyNet comes online I'll be able to fight back (or be assimilated, either way). :)

So, I biked down to the lake and did some more vigilante gardening, this time to repair a thunderstorm-damaged bit of connecting trail, and to improve a second path through an otherwise intractable mud pit.

After digging and moving dirt, and lugging stones to try to build a better set of stepping stones, it was time for a dip in the lake... which is still crazy cold, but very refreshing.


Went home, fed the dogs, watched the latest Homestar Runner cartoon, and headed back down to the lake, this time to Bluffer's Park. There, I launched the kayak and the paddled the 6.4K home to Galloway Road in about 80 mins, including stops to take pictures of the shore, the mist on the ever-so-glassy water, and a precariously balanced house with a whole lot of empty air beneath it.

After putting the boat away, I biked the 8.3K back to Bluffer's Park, retrieved the car, and headed for home.

What a wonderfully exhausting weekend!

73K: To Kipling Station and back

Seems I've been spending too much time in front of the computer:

So, to make things right, I took the boys for a walk from Sylan Park, down the bluff, across the beach, and home again.

On the walk home, I texted Paul and we decided to go for a ride. Little did I know that thanks to Paul's suggestion, it was going to be the longest ride I've ever done!

We started out at 2:10pm, and didn't get home until shortly after 7pm. In between, we rode from Guildwood to Danforth, across to Bloor, up Church to Davenport, down Landsdowne, back on Bloor to Kipling Station!

On the way back, we detoured through High Park. This is the first time I've ever been through this park, and I have to say it was beautiful! Out the east side of the park, we headed south to the Lakeshore, and tracked that until we got to the Beaches and picked up the Waterfront Trail, then eventually back to Kingston Rd and home to where I left the car. What a day!

Guildwood to Kipling Station return

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Father's Day Weekend

Thursday: 4th time paddling this year: from put-in south of Galloway Rd to about half-way between Livingston and Brimley and back in about an hour

Friday: running from zombies

Saturday: moving and chopping wood (to further clear the lake access @ my favourite put-in); cycling 17K; first VERY brief swim of the season in Lake Ontario

Sunday: 23K by bike; the first 3K in thunderstorm, then lots of hills to warm up.

22K road, path, hills

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Saw a couple of deer in a field just north of Ellesmere, then biked under the road past a rather overfilled stream ...

... and some great graffiti.

Building A Boat Launch

Have you ever started a path? No one seems willing to do this. We don't mind using existing paths, but we rarely start new ones. Do it today. Start a path. -- George Carlin

Today I paddled for 2-1/4 hours, from Rouge Beach Park to the beach near my house.

Rouge Beach Park to below Guildwood Park by Kayak

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This was partly to run a final test of the new boat launch path I've been building sporadically since April, and partly to finally break in my birthday present -- a new Yakima roof rack from Rack Attack.

Two months ago, I decided that since the beach nearest my house was a mere 10-minute portage from door to lake, I would take it upon myself to improve the access path, as the winter left a lot of debris on the beach and made getting a kayak down to the water very difficult.



One happy side-effect of this project has been to make the beach wheelchair-accessible, and on the first weekend I started, a group of local dog owners came by with their pack of collies, one of which is equipped with a pair of wheels to replace her non-functional back legs. In the past, her owner told me, it's been very difficult for her to get to the water. Now, she can roll right in with the rest of the pack. Her owner was thrilled, needless to say.



Anyway, I'm happy to say that despite some problems in the early beta tests (in May) today it worked great. The lake's still too cold for swimming, but the paddling's beautiful, especially with easy access to the water.

Towel Day @ Le Nordik

This past weekend in Ottawa-Gatineau, it was Race Weekend, and by complete coincidence, I was in town for it to visit my Grandmother and my Dad's ex, both the NAARB annual meeting. Sunday morning we got up and discovered that the road in front of our hotel was entirely blocked by the marathoners, so we opted to walk back over the bridge to Ottawa to meet them for breakfast.

Sunday was also Towel Day, and so we decided to drop in to Le Nordik Nature Spa just north of Gatineau for some quality time with our towels in the Nordic baths & saunas. HIGHLY recommended.

420

What a beautiful weekend -- so unlike last month's weather!

Friday night, Paul and I went out for my first bit of cycling in 2008. An hour an a half into our planned 45-min ride, we were ready to drop -- apparently I just don't know how to stop once I get going. All told, I did about 28K, and Paul did 33K.

Afterwards he introduced me to his Wii, his Mii of me, and Wii bowled for a while until SWMNBN arrived to collect us for some food & drink at the Fossil.

Saturday I took the dogs around our trail-lake-ravine-woods-Guildwood-Gardens loop, ending with a brief splash through the duck pond at the park entrance. Finished up some outstanding work for Rainbow Cinemas and had dinner w/ SWMNBN & her parents at a new Chinese buffet joint.

Today I went hiking with the boys across the beach & up the ravine that runs though Grey Abbey Park. Patch, in typical Patch fashion, decided that hiking up a ravine wasn't enough activity & took off when I dropped his leash to climb over a downed tree. I finally caught up to him just below the fence bordering the Rohm & Haas property, and we all climbed down together.

Later, after running some errands by bike, I decided to cycle down to the waterfront west of Galloway Road and along the trail there. The lake being still quite full this early in the season, I got a little wet portaging from where the trail ends to where it picks up again below the ravine @ Bellamy Rd, but it was worth it to get to a quiet place, to enjoy this beautiful day.

Total weekend cycling distance: 50K.

Coming inside

For Xmas my fiancé and her family pitched in to get me and her a pair of Tacx cycletrainers so we can both continue to cycle through the winter.

Managed to do my first 30min ride yesterday (20min on level 3, 10 min on level 2), despite the confused and worried looks from the dogs.