We took last week and went on vacation up to Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Spent several days camping and then a couple of days in Victoria. The weather was beautiful, and apparently Canadian schools let out a week after the U.S. ones, so the campgrounds were empty, and Lake Cowichan was devoid of speedboats and waterskiers. Unfortunately, it was also devoid of enough degrees fahrenheit for me to swim out very far. Near shore, it was just barely warm enough, even with my wetsuit on, for me to stop hyperventilating enough to swim a couple of thousand yards, back and forth along the shore. When I attempted to swim out further (I just can't resist the pull of an empty lake!), my lungs felt like they were being crushed by the cold, and I had to turn around.
Fortunately, my daughter spotted this gigantic crawdad, right before it was about to attack my foot. I swear, this thing was like 8 inches long. Like a little lake lobster or something. I've never seen a crawdad this big - they grow them big up north, I guess!
I got in a nice bike ride on Cowichan River road, although from our campground it was seriously uphill, right off the bat (nothing like a 15 percent grade on legs that aren't even warmed up yet!) and a run on trails by the campground.
In Victoria, I took a run on the Galloping Goose trail, along the riverfront out of town. The dragonboat teams were all practicing, so I got to run to the accompaniement of beating drums and the slap of oars in the water.
I also took a really nice bike ride along the waterfront and around the tip of the island. With views like these of the Olympic mountains, the miles just seem to roll on by. I will say though that the drivers were less than bike-friendly. I think I had more near-misses in 25 miles of Victoria's roads than I've had all year here in my bike-friendly town. Still, it was a great vacation and a great opportunity to train in some really beautiful countryside.
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