It’s an easy trek, in the woods south of Stockholm, the 3+4th sections of Sörmlandsleden - I have been there a number of times - but the terrain is quite mixed, mostly conifer roots and rocks, so a good exercise for joint mobility and overall balance.
We have beavers in Sweden - I don’t know whether they are indigenous or imported.
They are a problem in some area of Stockholm, where they bring down trees and block canals.
Wow! Only walking was recommended post bypass, but I had lost so much strength I carefully started weights. My exercise leader won’t let me sail sporty boats yet, but I’m certainly going cruising! And I got hiking boots for the first time since the 80’s.
These are aerial markers on a span of high tension lines crossing Montague Harbour on Galiano Island, BC. The outlier is a floatplane flying overhead. The balls are in groups of six, more or less in a straight line slashing across the lines.
We had sailed there that day. I was a guest on a very nice cruiser. Now I am probably spoiled for any lesser boat.
We were sailing downwind wing-on-wing with the genoa and code zero sails on opposite sides. The main was left flaked on the boom just for fun. We had visited this place:
The dried reef/islet and Arbutus tree and Garry Oaks were on Cabbage Island. It is somewhat difficult to get to but conditions were settled so we took it on. My friend is understandably quite conservative in managing his boat so it was a treat to make it there for all of us. This next shot looks placid but I’ve been in there with 4 foot swells and 25 knot winds at 4 am. We lasted two hours until the light allowed us to carefully motor out of there.
Looking south to Tumbo Island. I’ve heard Tumbo is now part of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. Yay! I was very happy to see very little garbage on the shores. I usually find lengths of poly rope and needed them to string together some rusty bolts into a wind chime. Oh well.
The race started at 7am Central Time this morning. After 5 hours, the leader is already 14% complete, with an average speed of 10mph – which is pretty incredible.
I’ll be stationed at a ramp a little over halfway down the course (blue dot).
The race isn’t over, but there are winners. Fastest boat was a 4-person team that paddled 340 miles in just under 37 hours - an astonishing average of 9.2 mph.
