Training Log Archive: Bash

Hike around Palgrave West with AdventureDog.

Similar hike with BazingaDog. If I'm alone, it's much more enjoyable to hike the pooches separately, unfortunately.

The theme of this weekend in Palgrave is "honeysuckle on the breeze". Such a nice smell.

A less pleasant theme was "LDD moth caterpillars on the breeze" - although most of them have grown too large to blow around anymore. I just pulled one out of my hair though. Ugh.

‘Bent and I introduced ourselves to a family of Palgrave Forest visitors who had spread a blanket for a snack break in the middle of a patch of poison ivy. ‘Tis the season. If you know someone who needs to work on PI recognition skills, this photo quiz is useful.
https://www.poison-ivy.org/poison-ivy-quiz

I'm feeling some mild vaccine-related fatigue and muscle pain, I think, so 'Bent and I took an easy ride to Tottenham and back, mostly on the Caledon Trailway.



I suggested that we explore a side trail near Tottenham Conservation Area. 'Bent wasn't impressed with my shortcut trail back to the Trailway.

Report from the late shift at Caledon's vaccination clinic:

- We had 20% as many appointments as last Thursday because the province has gone back to distributing vaccines by population, rather than sending extra doses to Covid hot spots. What's strange is that people were coming to our clinic from outside Peel Region so the extra doses didn't all benefit our hot spot anyway.

- At a time when we're supposed to shop alone to avoid overcrowding stores, it's interesting to see how many people come to their vaccination appointment with a friend or family member who is not being vaccinated - just there for company, I guess.

- A small number of people have very strong opinions on Pfizer vs. Moderna and don't necessarily approve of the one being offered to them. (Some Pfizer had to be saved for ages 12-17 since Moderna isn't approved for them yet.) We're *so* lucky to have a buffet of effective vaccines just 15 months into the pandemic.

- At the end of the evening, there were a few leftover doses in the vials so the names of willing clinic staff were put into a hat and I was one of the extremely lucky winners of a 2nd shot.

I spent the afternoon weeding, planting and watering our veggie garden. I dressed in a hazmat suit to keep off the tiny LDD moth caterpillars (formerly known as gypsy moths). The hairs on the caterpillars contain toxins that cause itchy welts and rashes on many people, including me. Mercifully, they seem to have grown just a little bigger this week so they can no longer blow on the wind and crawl under clothing undetected.

Apparently, I’m a fragile flower when it comes to manual labour because I finished with a large open blister on the palm of my hand in spite of wearing gardening gloves. So no biking, paddling, dumbbells, rowing, planks or yoga for a few days - doh!

Super fun ride with 'Bent around Kolapore. It was a similar route to Saturday with a tweak to shorten the gravel road connector section. I became the Local Legend on a segment that I've posted on Strava twice, lol! (For non-Strava people, that just means that I've ridden it more than anyone else in recent months.)

Riding on uneven rocks is feeling more natural. I'm thinking of it like whitewater where you have to keep paddling through the technical section to prevent disaster. There were trillions of trilliums but the season will be coming to a close soon.