Went downtown for an appointment with Keiran. Goslings in the park are getting bigger!!
Had to make a second quick trip downtown later in the evening to pick something up.
Wednesday two new bags showed up from Arkel. Both are handlebar bags... It... seemed like a good idea at the time!? (what it came down to was I was having a hard time deciding which one... then it turned out that they were both the same price and that price was 5¢ short of free shipping and there wasn't anything else cheaper I wanted to add to the order... so I thought why not BOTH!?
What I was looking for was a bag that was a bit bigger than the one I've been using - which is very small - it basically holds a phone, small camera, wallet, keys notebook... that's about it. I've started carrying good binoculars around and it was a pain trying to retrieve them from my trunk bag or a pannier... I was hoping this one, the smaller of the two, would fit the binoculars along with my phone and notebook... and... it DOES... but since ordering these Amanda has successfully convinced me it is worthwhile to carry the larger, better camera. both were not going to fit in this!
I really like the colour of this one.
This one only came in black, which I was less than enthusiastic about.. but it's a bit bigger.
Layter on wednesday I went for my first ride with one of the new bags, and I started with the smaller of the two. I didn't even take the good binoculars. I ended up taking the good camera and a smaller set of compact binoculars.
Rode through an alleyway in Montgomery to avoid 11th Street as much as I could.
Eventually alleyway ran out and I had no choice to ride 11th Street. Between Montgomery and teh Highway, 11th Street is narrow, very busy, with not much of a shoulder - and in many places that shoulder is gravel - luckily, I was riding a gravel bike, so... not that much of a problem. Riding a road bike with skinny not-so-gravel tires out here SUCKS.
My destination - a wetland west of the city - that's part of the same lowland that includes the Chappell Marsh. As with the Chappell Marsh, half of it has completely dried up and the water level in the other half is much lower than it has been in the past. There WERE birds here - but not so many as I've seen in previous years.
Semipalmated Sandpiper I spotted out there - taken with newer camera. Yeah... it's the one to take.
Yeah... it's the one to take... The compact binoculars seem like garbage, compared to the good ones I've been taking with me...
This used to be a road that ran straight through the wetland. It's been closed and they've built a new road AROUND the wetland. But it's still accessible by foot or bike.
Heading west.
Still going west.
Dried wetland out in a field.
This is where I turned.
Heading south from here.
Onto gravel now.
Not sure what this place is. Crusher maybe?
Potash Mine.
small wetland in a field between the potash mine and the other place with a pair of Northern Shovellers and a Red-Winged Blackbird
Another little wetland nearby.
Past the mine and across the main highway and heading east again. Another dried up wetland.
More dried up wetlands.
Telephone pole with a large next box! Not what it was for? Flicker? Owl? I think there are even some small ducks that use next boxes - but this one was nowhere near water...
Saw lots more birds when I went by the Chappell Marsh - Red-Winged Blackbird (male)
Yellow-Headed Blackbird (male)
Red-Winged Blackbird (female)
Other side of Chappell Marsh... still looking super dry...
Lilacs are blooming in my front yard.
Wednesday I rode with Keiran to their Pom wrap-up party. It was way out on 8th street and took a rather convoluted route to get there. It was only going to be an one or two hours and so I thought I'd wait and ride home with them. Within three blocks of the place there was two bookstores and a comic/game store...
Turns out ALL THREE WERE CLOSED!?
Amanda had arranged to borrow my parents car to get them to rehearsal and recital for tap dance - which is out the east end of town at Lakeview Church. We've ridden there for previous dance competitions that have taken place there... but it is NOT a fun place to try and get to by bike - especially now they've built an overpass that can't be avoided and a new neighbourhood has sprung up around the church making for MORE traffic. Both recital and rehearsal were also in the evening (whereas other times we went there were in the afternoon)...
So I rode up to my folks with one of the folders and my fancy new Arkel bag - which was perfect for this!
I made it home alive.
I have not driven a car in maybe four years... and what SHOULD have been an easy drive down Spadina, turned into a nightmare of recalibrating and refiguring routes when I ran into construction THREE times that made me have to come up with a completely different route to get home - all along roads I never RIDE bikes on!?
Afterwards I went out for a ride in the countryside
This time I tried the larger of the Arkel bags. and I was able to fit the good binoculars AND the good camera in it (along with my little sketchbook for taking notes) - with a bit of foam between them to keep them knocking into each other.
Heading South and a little bit East.
Not a cloud in the sky.
Saw a lot more Eastern Kingbirds
Little bit of pavement as I rolled through a Casa Rio.
Back to gravel.
THAT SKY!?
Still more gravel.
Little wetland with a few mallards in it.
Everything is so much greener! Amazing what just a little bit or rain can do for the plants... need a lot more to refill some of the dried up wetlands.
Summer Road bordering the north end of CFD Dundurn
I swear I took a picture in the exact spot a week ago and everything was brown and yellow.
GREEN!
You get the idea...
Rolling back into town, I spotted a few beavers
and a Belted Kingfisher!
I went for a short ride with the tandem on Saturday to pick up Amanda after she dropped the car back at m folks. I'd planned on going for another ride, but got roped into playing badminton with Amanda and Keiran.
We didn't play all that long. I used to play badminton a LOT and was pretty good at it... twenty years ago. I am much our of practice and not nearly as flexible and my body just can't move that fast in those ways. Amanda and Keiran had no clue and little eye hand coordination... So we really only stayed out the minimum amount of time we had to for Keiran's Wellness class requirement...
Sunday I went out for another longer ride in the countryside - the longest one, so far, this year - 50Km!
It started out very warm and sunny with a few clouds...
Rode past here.
Crossing the highway that goes to Pike Lake
Another of my favourite summer roads. "Summer Roads" are not properly gravelled and not maintained (cleared of snow) in the winter. They end to be just dirt paths along right of ways to allow access to adjoining fields and rarely see any traffin
More crowds
More summer road
Bobolink.
When I turned south the clouds were often blocking out the sun and, with the wind blowing at my side, it suddenly felt a LOT colder!
Almost felt like it might rain (spoiler: it didn't)
Large flock of sheep. It's been a long time since I rod out this way, but I don't remember there being sheep here!
Another stretch of pavement.
Back onto the gravel.
Cows.
A Western Meadowlark that was nice enough to sit still long enough for me to take a picture!
doing down an hill and up another hill... This was going into the wind and going up that hill opposite was a bit of a struggle.
Killdeer in the road.
A bunc of different waterfowl all clustered in a small wetland by the road.
looking back down that other hill.
turning point.
More gravel
And one last roll past the Chappell Marsh.
Up to 172.1km this week. A few more than last week - but I'd kind of wanted to get that up to 200Km by now... Maybe this next week...
(but probably not, considering it's now Friday of said "Next Week" and I'm barely past 50Km... can I do three 50Km rides over the next three days...?)
(in the rain!?)
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