Due to a rather late start, I opted to run the river trail today and also, sometimes it’s just nice to change things up.
Conditions were similar to Wednesday–cloudy and 14C. I got off to a false start because one of my AirPods wasn’t sitting in my ear correctly. After fixing that, I got off to a slightly longer false start when I remembered I had to tie up my shoes, especially the evil left shoe, which requires a double bow.
I then continued my run for real, uninterrupted. The trail was pretty sparse, with a few cyclists and walkers, but no one else.
My right shin felt tender at the start, which was a concern, but it eventually settled down again, so…we’ll see!
I started strong, flagged a little in the second km, then finished strong, with an overall pace of 5:37/km and a BPM matching Wednesday of 145. My last two km were 5:29 and 5:23, respectively. The main difference here was the actual location. The river trail is pretty flat and wide, unlike the trail at Burnaby Lake, which is more like an actual twisty, windy trail. Here’s a typical view of the river trail, taken post-run:
This also reflects my view for most of the run, with few people around.
Anyway, getting in a zippier run and beating the heat again was a nice combo and a good way to end the week. And as the title mentions, this run marked 7,000 km officially tracked, enough to take me across Canada and drop me off somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean.
The river, post-run: A bit low, due to a relative lack of rain over the last few weeks.
Stats:
Run 1,035 Average pace: 5:37/km Training status: Maintaining Location: Brunette River Trail Start: 12:21c p.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 28:13 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 14°C Humidity: 63-60% Wind: light BPM: 145 Weight: 167.4 pounds Total distance to date: 7,000 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (270/480/750)
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Cloudy and cooler.
Despite a later start, today’s run was cooler–a mere 14C, which is practically seasonal. It was also cloudy, so no need for sunblock.
I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the lake, because the drinking fountain by the dam was working again. I celebrated by sipping water from it. To my further delight, the fountain was still operating after my run, so I sipped again. Oh happy day.
The watch suggested a recovery run and because I missed Monday, I was good with that, so I adopted a somewhat more leisurely pace. My overall pace of 5:45/km is maybe a tad misleading, as I did pick up for the final km, coming in at 5:31/km, which brought my average down a good bit. Still, I felt fine throughout, had no issues and my BPM was a spiffy 145. Thank you, clouds and lower temperatures.
There were no shirtless joggers today.
I still have yet to see a coyote. I’m not saying I want to, I just haven’t.
In all, a fine mid-week effort.
Still Creek, post-run: A mix of gray skies and green banks.
Stats:
Run 1,034 Average pace: 5:45/km Training status: Maintaining Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 11:03 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 28:57 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 14°C Humidity: 76-74% Wind: light BPM: 145 Weight: 168.4 pounds Total distance to date: 6,995 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (265/473/738)
Where: Piper Spit/Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam) Weather: Sunny, 28°C
The weather today was more like what you would expect in about two months, when it’s, you know, summer. Crazy climate change. But this time II wore sunblock and even reapplied it!
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
Clear skies, no birds. Well, a few birds.
It was a shorter and simpler day of birding, which was just as well, because it seemed the unusually warm temperatures were keeping a lot of birds tucked out of view, no doubt in cooler places.
But it started with adorable goslings, still fuzzy and not yet ready to hiss or honk. I even caught one in an adorable, fuzzy little yawn.
After the geese and a robin, we did not see many other birbs on the way to Piper Spit, but we did come across one fuzzy caterpillar.
At the pier, it was strangely quiet, with few people around. We speculated that all the naughty bird feeders were in church confessing their sins. And also, we didn’t even see anyone feeding them today, though there were a few piles of seed scattered around (and few takers).
Despite low water levels, no shorebirds were around, boo. Well, unless you count seagulls, in which case there were two.
With the relative lack of birds, we focused on some of the regulars, like the ever-fabulous wood ducks and teals. Some geese were nesting, while others were watching over their broods. No baby ducks yet, but soon™.
Before we left, a very orange Sandhill Crane flew in to pose and preen. They are quite good at both.
The butterfly garden yielded no butterflies, but it did contain one garden, just as the signs promised.
We took advantage of the water fountain to hydrate, then headed back to the car for the next and final stop of the day.
Tlahutum Regional Park
Classic shot of Coquitlam River, looking a bit low today.
Tlahutum proved to be teal-rich. On the way in, we saw a Cinnamon Teal in one of the creeks, but the shrubbery proved our nemesis, and we were unable to get shots before it went…elsewhere.
The main pond had a pair of Blue-winged Teals, with their fancy diagonal white racing stripes, but they were both fairly distant and were so busy dunking their heads most of my shots make them appear headless.
Tree swallows were abundant in the community garden, and we heard yet again the taunting calls of Yellowthroats, who proved even more elusive than Marsh Wrens or Virginia Rails. Well, maybe not more than Virginal Rails. But close!
Among more visible avians were some Brown-headed Cowbirds, more robins, and a few Anna’s Hummingbirds, one of which was sitting on a branch that was bouncing so much from the wind that the hummingbird has motion blue, even though it was sitting still.
The sky yielded both a Red-Tailed Hawk and an Osprey. I got a few decent shots of the Osprey, but the hawk mostly eluded me. I had better luck with an Air Canada jet, and managed to sneak in a Tree Swallow in the same shot by accident.
In all, it was a rather quiet day, but also kind of nice. A breeze at Tlahutum kept the heat from being horrible, which is not a thing I’d expect to say a few days into May, but here we are!
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto. Some scenery shots taken on a Samsung Galaxy S26.
A small gallery of shots:
A goose on a log.
A twitchy squirrel.
Sandhill Crane, resplendent in orange.
A gosling, adorably yawning.
A juvenile Great Blue Heron striking a pose.
Tree Swallow on house.
An Osprey showing off his impressive wingspan. And terrorizing voles.
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
American Goldfinch
American Robin
Anna’s Hummingbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Yellowthroat (heard repeatedly, tauntingly)
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Calm and mostly clear.
I missed my run yesterday due to paving. Yes, paving.
So I set out early this morning, hoping to beat both the crowds and the heat. I did beat the latter, but not so much the former. It was especially clogged up near the dam, but the number of people thinned a bit as I headed out.
The unusually warm weather meant I saw not one, but five guys running shirt-free. The first one practically bumped me out of the way as I was just entering the park off Cariboo Road. I saw a pair that seemed mostly there to show off their lean, unnaturally hairless bodies, as they were running at what might be called a casual pace, all the better to show off their short shorts and flat abs, while conversing about whatever.
Not that I’m jealous.
I started out surprisingly brisk, then fell off unsurprisingly in the second km, but not too badly. Toward the end of that second km, I encountered an array of bugs and saw what looked like one heading right at me. Shortly after that I felt a catch in my throat and I believe I had ingested a bug.
This caused some coughing, which startled two birds in a nearby bush, causing them to fly off. I eventually had to pause the run to clear my throat without the distraction of running at the same time.
I later paused again, briefly, to grab a few shots of a detour in the route. It appears they may be doing work on the olde boardwalk, which has something like eight traffic cones on it currently. They replaced the entire railing on both sides last year, so I’m guessing more planks will be getting replaced this time around. The detour was not overlong and didn’t seem to affect my pace.
You shall not pass (until the coyotes are gone or repairs are made or something).
EDIT: I checked the Burnaby Lake website after and apparently this closure is due to…coyotes:
It’s the coyotes! And their pups. Or is it?
But the sign on the nearby post clearly states it’s for repairs:
Who to believe?
Heading out right at 9 a.m. proved to be smart, as the temperature rose from 16C to 18C during the run and humidity plunged 9%. My BPM was slightly higher at 148, but that seems fine for the effort, and my pace was 5:42/km, pretty good once you factor in the second km, which was 5:46/km.
Also, because it was Saturday, the sports fields were full of people playing sports, mostly with discs, it seems. The parts not being used were occupied by geese, some of which had their babbies in tow. They are still fuzzy and cute.
In all, a perfectly cromulent wrap to the week.
Still Creek, post-run: Very still, much creek.
Stats:
Run 1,033 Average pace: 5:42/km Training status: Maintaining Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 9:42 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 28:38 Weather: Sunny Temp: 16-18°C Humidity: 69-61% Wind: light BPM: 148 Weight: 168.5 pounds Total distance to date: 6,990 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (260/460/720)
Here’s four of them all next to each other in New Westminster, shot a few days ago from a pier on the Fraser River1Not on my ancient Phone 12!.
From front to back:
SkyBridge. This is only used for our SkyTrain ALRT system and opened in 1990.
Pattullo Bridge. 89 years old at the time of death, scary to drive across because of narrow lanes and no centre barrier. Closed permanently in February of this year. It’s now being dismantled.
Rail bridge. For your traditional train needs. It swings!
Bridge, which replaces the Pattullo. It opened in December 2025 but off-ramps and pedestrian access are still being finished, in part because the old bridge is in the way and they had to chop the ends off of it to allow construction of the new bridge to continue. Named by the local Musequem and Kwantlen bands, it means “a place where you can view the river.” (Apologies for the weird-looking name, which is presented as an image. My blog can’t interpret the special characters due to some old database shenanigans I’ve never figured out because I am neither a web developer nor a database expert. I don’t even touch type, for pete’s sake.)
All stats are trending in the right direction, woo.
April is the first full month I did not track my calories at all. I just tried to eat sensibly.
I focused on the following:
Eating more fruit and vegetables
Getting more protein via:
Non-fat yogurt
Nuts (mostly walnuts, some pistachios and cashews)
Chocolate milk protein drink (after runs, 18 grams of protein per cup)
High protein cereal mixed in with other low sugar cereals
Restricting snacks to things like the occasional Pocky (when on sale)
Otherwise eating my usual breakfast, lunch and dinner
There were some cookies, pizza and the like, but I ran regularly throughout the month, which probably helped, since each run is an 18 km round trip (5 to 10K of that is running).
In all, going the right way. Onward through May.
Stats:
January 1, 2026: 169.4 pounds
Current: 169.2 pounds Year to date: Down 0.2 pounds
April 1: 169.8 pounds April 30: 169.2 pounds (down 0.7 pounds)
Body fat: April 1: 26.3% April 30: 25.6% (down 0.7%)
Skeletal muscle mass: April 1: 29.9 kg April 30: 29.8 kg (down 0.1 kg)
I started this blog with my first post on February 4, 2005 and as of this post right here, I now have 6,040 entries. I knew I was getting close to 6,000 but then kind of forgot about it until I saw another blog post talking about blogging (how meta), which made me check the stats here.
This averages to around 287 posts per year, or a little less than once per day, though if you check the posts widget on the sidebar, you’ll see my volume increased quite a bit starting around September 2015, when I began posting 1–2 times per day because I declared anything that popped into my head fair game to record here.
My posting pace started flagging a bit in the last few years for various reasons as life and other things distracted me, but I’m working on getting back into that “post anything” mentality, because some of my best/weirdest writing has come out of that.
I really want to end this with typing cat again, but I will resist.
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: A nice breeze and warmer.
I got off to a later start this morning for reasons (I swear I wasn’t being lazy), but still managed to begin my run in the morning, which was important because it was yet again going to be warmer than usual and my body is still adjusting to early June temperatures happening in late April.
As it turned out, the run went fairly well, almost matching Monday’s pace, only one second slower on average at 5:44/km. My BPM was slightly lower at 145, which was nice to see as it was 16-17C on the run, so I do indeed appear to be acclimating to the warmer temperatures (vague warning about climate change here).
The trail was moderately busy, with an assortment of runners and walkers, though none of the regular runners. There was a walking group and a few OWs1Oblivious Walkers but I didn’t have any problem navigating around any of them.
I had one brief issue during the 3K stretch, where my right shin hurt just a wee bit. This resolved itself after 15 seconds or so, and did not come back, so I am thinking it’s just a kink working out and nothing more.
And this was one of the first runs of the year when I both put on sunblock and actually showed visible signs of sweating. Yuck to both, though at least the sunblock makes me smell pretty. Hopefully it doesn’t attract bees or anything.
Anyway, a good mid-week run.
The lake, looking north: Return of the Lily Pad Empire.
Stats:
Run 1,032 Average pace: 5:44/km Training status: Maintaining Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 11:24 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 28:49 Weather: Mostly sunny Temp: 16-17°C Humidity: 63-59% Wind: light to moderate BPM: 145 Weight: 168.9 pounds Total distance to date: 6,985 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (255/446/701)
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Cloudy and cooler.
The weather promised a high of 18C and mostly sunny, but the reality was clouds, the possibility of a shower and a temperature of 12C when I set out for my run. In other words, it was actually better for running.
I opted to go clockwise, continuing my alternating pattern. Lately I’ve been developing an affinity for the clockwise route, even if it means crossing through the marshy bits at the west end of the lake where water is now streaming across the path in at least five places. Hopefully something is done about this before boat rentals are needed to complete passage.
I didn’t have any plan for the run, but started out a bit slow. I picked up the pace on the second km and was slightly less slow. After this I got my footing and established a faster pace, ending with an overall of 5:43/km and a BPM of 146, a fair bit lower than Friday. The cooler temperatures really do seem to treat me better.
Hangdog was out, but no other regular runners. I got to see the four goslings and their parents post-run, which was fun. No hissing, even!
I didn’t experience any issues, though I encountered an issue deep into the third km. Specifically, there was a parks vehicle puttering along the trail ahead of me. The driver seemed to be going at a respectable pace and I didn’t think there’d be an issue, but it soon became obvious that I was catching up and this would become a problem at some point. I definitely did not want to pass. I began to slow my pace a little to establish more distance when the vehicle suddenly stopped and the driver stuck out one of those pickers for grabbing litter out the left side, as if signalling…something.
I could not interpret what it meant. Did he mean me to stop? Was he signalling a left turn (into the bushes?) I did not know. This seemed to be a good time top just plain pause the run, so I did. Once I deemed him sufficiently ahead, I resumed running, only to see there was an intersection in the trail ahead and he was, indeed, turning left.
I encountered no further putt-putt cars and the rest of the run was fine and dandy.
In all, a good start to the week.
Still Creek, post-run. Gloomy but green.
Stats:
Run 1,031 Average pace: 5:43/km Training status: Maintaining Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 10:47 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 28:45 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 12°C Humidity: 75-72% Wind: light BPM: 146 Weight: 169.5 pounds Total distance to date: 6,980 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (250/433/683)
The weather was once again fabulous. I once again got sunburn. I even had my sunblock, I just didn’t put it on. I’ll learn by the next outing, I swear.
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
This is the main pond, reflecting the general absence of birds.
This was my second trip back to Reifel after the Barge and Bridge Incident™, with all trails save the North Dyke Trail now re-opened, though a few are still in pretty rough shape.
Three things stood out this day:
There was a lot of bird drama (here and elsewhere) and it wasn’t just mad geese, though they figured prominently, as always.
Most of the birds were absent, either nesting, hiding or visiting their pocket dimensions due to the unseasonably warm weather, perhaps.
Poop.
Let me start with the poop. We had just entered and had barely made it past the entrance when some birds flew overhead, one depositing a load on both my left and right wrists. I was wearing a long-sleeved light hoodie, so it could have been worse. It could also have been a heron pooping, which would have been much worse. Still, it was an annoying way to start the day and despite being reassured by Nic and Jeff that getting pooped on by a bird is good luck, I was not convinced. I didn’t win the lottery later that evening, so there.
After cleaning up in the washroom, we got to touring the open trails and as mentioned, many of the ponds were strangely bereft of birds Even the sparrows seem to be reduced in numbers. It was odd and a wee bit disappointing.
We saw three Sandhill Cranes, one by itself, the other two (a couple) strolling around together. At one point it seemed one of the pair may have landed on a small island possibly already occupied with a goose nest. And goose. Drama ensued and the other half of the crane couple called out in its weird, loud trilling croak for quite a while after.
The Killdeer family was nowhere to be seen, alas.
The geese were strategically placed all over the sanctuary, asserting their dominance, one even perching itself magnificently on the railing of the platform with the sign that assures you if you are very quiet, you might see a Virginia Rail. Sure, that could happen, if you didn’t have a Canada Goose literally standing there, lording over the area, ready to start blatting out its war cry on a moment’s notice.
At the viewing platform, we saw two wasps doing something. I’ve looked at my photos and I’m still not sure. Were they making out? Was one eating the other? They eventually separated and one flew off, so I guess it was mutual something or other. Still not as strange as dragonflies copulating.
A number of swallows were in a nest-building mood, and were gathering bits of straw, down and other nest-building material. Soon, the babbies, with their giant mouths and endless cries of, “FEED ME! FEEEEEED ME!”
By early afternoon, we completed our circuit and freshly sunburnt, headed off to our next stop: Centennial Beach.
Centennial Beach
Very low tide, with Mt. Baker in the background.
We started at the entrance near to the pump station and saw some herons stalking about, spied some gulls way out with the extremely low tide and got shots of Mt. Baker, which was standing against a bright blue sky.
And there were shorebirds! Specifically, Least and Western Sandpipers. We watched them scamper along the shoreline, take off in brief bursts of flight and repeat until they decided to fly off.
We saw our only shovelers here, what was likely a mated pair, in the small pond near the other entrance to the beach.
And the Raptor Trail delivered, with what turned out to be a fight or exchange between a male and female Northern Harrier. The male had caught a bird and made it an ex-bird. The female showed up, the male dropped it and the female apparently made off with it. I have no idea if this was planned or just one harrier shaking down another.
Back out on the bay, a young Bald Eagle was standing on a distant sandbar and would occasionally fly off to another. At one, he appeared to be noshing on something that turned out to be a large crab. He got the crab to go, and flew off. The eagle, not the crab. Well, the crab flew off too, but was in the talons of the eagle and was an ex-crab at that point.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
Look at all the birds that might be here, but aren’t!
Still sunburnt, we went to our last stop: The Piper Spit Bird Hangout and Illegal Seed Sharing Site. Here we saw a lot of Wood Duck drama, for some reason, with males flapping, chasing and flaring out their mullets. Cowbirds and pigeons were both looking unsuccessfully for love and there were shorebirds here, too.
Most of the winter migrants have departed–we saw no Scaups, Buffleheads or Ring-necked Ducks (a single pair of the latter were at Reifel), but we still have coots.
The butterfly garden proved to have no butterflies or fancy spiders this time, but at least we didn’t have to wait for a train to pass before leaving.
In all, a decent day of birding, though I was a bit disappointed by the lack of birds and also the overall quality of my shots. I got some good ones, but there were a lot of misses, too. And I wasn’t even trying to shoot flying swallows.
But at least the weather was again faboo.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto. Some scenery shots taken on a Samsung Galaxy S26.
A few shots, gallery pending:
A Sandhill Crane, sitting on the grass near the Reifel entrance.Watching and waiting…I don’t know what this Wood Duck was reacting to. They were all a bit weird.
Caveat: Time and a lot of patience were sacrificed, but not in a ritualistic manner.
Early optimism
I got Linux Mint working on my 2019 PC alongside Windows 11 without much fuss a few years ago, each OS on its own SSD. I figured it would be pretty straightforward to do the same on my new PC.
I was wrong.
The fix and its various parts
First, Mint would refuse to even see Windows 11. I fixed this through some major overkill: I installed an entirely different Linux distro that did (in this case, KDE Neon).
Next, after recognizing that Windows 11 existed, Mint would only offer a dual boot option if I partitioned the drive I had Windows 11 on, which I did not want to do. (The next major update of Mint, coming around December 2026, promises to use a more modern installer that will likely address my woes detailed here.)
I did the next best thing, telling Mint to erase the SSD that KDE Neon was on, and then install to that. I’d have my dual boot system, woo.
Except Mint did this and never set up the Grub dual boot config at all. It would only boot into Mint unless I mashed F8 at startup and then chose the SSD with Windows.
I fixed this by using a Windows program called Grub2Win, which adds an absolutely hideous graphical UI (seriously, it looks like a CGA monitor threw up on it) to the Grub boot menu. I added Mint as the second boot-up option, pointing to its correct location on its SSD.
Everything now works as intended.
A list but please, don’t try this at home
So, in order:
Install an unrelated Linux distro, like KDE Neon, on a secondary SSD, leaving Windows 11 as is on the primary SSD.
Use the “Erase partition/disk” option in the Linux Mint installer to replace the above distro.
Use a 3rd party program (in my case, Grub2Win, though others would presumably work) to add Linux Mint to the boot menu.
Vow to never do this again. (I’ll probably do it again.)
Easy!
I’m sure I missed twirling a few virtual knobs to make the process easier, but in the end, much like Grade 8 Algebra, I finally got to the solution no matter how painful it was to get there.
