Komoka Provincial Park: Part Two

   The weekend before last, I made my first real running foray into nearby Komoka Provincial Park. Today I decided I would head there again, to continue my exploration.

Headed east (south?)

   In the parking lot, there was a woman and a couple of kids and two horses, just sort of mulling about. I stopped and talked to them briefly and made mention that their presence there sort of explained the piles (well, one pile anyway) of horse poop I'd encountered on my previous expedition. They smiled a little sheepishly and said they generally try and kick it off to the side. I assured them a little horse poop was the least of my worries and then headed off.

A little beaver action, just off the trail

   The parking lot on Gideon Drive is centered approximately in the middle of the park and you can either head east or west from there (it might even be north or south for all I know) and today I headed west (maybe south!)
   The trail initially takes you through some tall grasslands but then down into forest. It peters out fairly quickly and then you find yourself heading back.

The Stairs! Which take you down to.....

   The other week when I was there a couple of different people I met on the trail referred to "the stairs". I had not seen "the stairs" that day and really had no idea what they were talking about. Well, today I found "the stairs". I knew they were "the stairs" as soon as I laid eyes on the them. Happily, they took me right down to the edge of the Thames River and from there I was able to skirt the riverbank as I ran. 

...the Thames!

   I ran pretty slowly today and was using it mainly as exploration. The park was once again pretty busy with hikers but I did encounter a couple of young runners who whizzed right past me in both directions and were obviously there for the workout. To be young again!

More of the Thames

Decay=Beauty!

   Eventually, I ended up on trails that I remembered from my last trip there and these then took me back to the parking lot.
   There is a small amount of bitter-sweetness about all of this.For years now, the people of London have been coming to Komoka for free and it has just been announced that starting August 1 there will be a charge for using the park. This has a lot of regular users up in arms, some claiming they will never return. Part of the problem here is that there are so many places in and around London to run or hike for free that it will be a bit of a hard sell to get people to make a short trip out of town to somewhere where they'll actually be forced to cough up hard cash. Another issue is that there really are no amenities in this provincial park---no picnic areas, no garbage cans, no wash rooms---those kinds of things. Likely the only thing that will keep people coming is if the whole place is tremendously enhanced. At which point, it will lose much of its charm!

Proposed new pricing. Boo! (unless, of
course, it makes the park a lot nicer...)

Trail running in Komoka Provincial Park (oh...and Ron, too)

  From where I live in west London, Komoka Provincial Park is about a five minute drive and I have been eyeing it for ages as a place to do some trail running. My wife and I made an exploratory trip there last year and it seemed as though it would be good for running. We also got lost but that's another story....
   I spent some time yesterday looking at the trails on Milermeter, trying to figure out mileages and which one of the many trails to try out first and today I headed there!
   The recent heatwave has died down somewhat and things have become a little more seasonable in these parts so I was anticipating a nice little run.
   The first part of the run, the trail was very narrow and, basically, you needed to beat the bushes back with your shoulders as you ran. Farther into the forest, though, things got a little wider and it was easier to run. 
   I'm not a particularly experienced trail runner but I would describe the trails as reasonable technical, this due to root systems and rocky inclines, as much as anything else. There are a handful of boggy areas which have boardwalk spanning them and some of the boardwalk is awesome and other stretches of boardwalk are a bit of an adventure in themselves---the occasional rotted board along with sections that spring you upward.
   The scenery was awesome. The part of the trail I was on more or less follows a cliff above the Thames River and occasionally there would be an opening in the forest and you'd find yourself looking down at a beautiful river scene. In between there was simply beautiful forest to look at!
   Due to it being Sunday, the trails were quite busy. Families and couples and their dogs. I had a route set out which took me from one end of the park to the other and then back again along the same trail. Many people appeared to be doing the same thing but in the opposite direction. This meant I'd run into them one way and then about 45 minutes later I'd run into them again, going different directions. Everyone was quite pleasant and lots of banter along the way.
   The parking lot at the other end of the park was about 3 kilometers from where I started and at that point I turned around and headed back.
   Very shortly after I did this, I ran into a gentleman with an English accent who was out hiking today. We stopped and talked briefly about how tricky the trail could be at times and he went on to tell me that he'd been going to the park on a regular basis for about 20 years now, was actually a member of the London Hiking Club and was also responsible for helping to set up many of the trails throughout the park! When I found out how much he walked, I remarked on the good shape he was obviously in. At that point, he asked me if I had any idea how old he was and then he went on to tell me he was actually 87! I would have guessed maybe 67 at the most but there's a pic of him a little later on. He then went on to tell me a little of his life story and at that point I knew I wanted to include him in this blog post so I asked if I could take a pic. He was a little astounded that I would want to do this but was happy to oblige, regardless. I asked if he was on the internet at all and he replied in the negative so no real opportunity to to direct him to this blog. As we parted ways, we introduced each other and I found out his name was Ron. Maybe I'll print a copy of this post and take it with me the next time...
   I then eventually made my way back to where my car was. Somehow or other in the process I ended up returning on a different trail than the one I'd set out on. Not quite sure how that happened, will need to investigate further. 
   The following is basically a photo dump of my day in Komoka Provincial Park. You really could have stopped every 50 yards or so and taken a totally different and just as beautiful a pic

Pretty swampy here, basically up to your ankles

Pretty sure this was horse poop but I thought
of it as bear poop, made the run more interesting

Seemed like there was another trail on the
other side, if you wanted to walk across that log...

Every once in a while, you popped out into a meadow!

One of the more reliable boardwalk sections.

Made it all the way to the other side, and then I....

...ran into Ron, the 87-year-old Englishman!

The Thames River, peeking through!

And back to my car!

On The Way To The Hills (Pretty Little Pictures Of My Neighbourhood)

   What day is it today? Oh yeah...Thursday. Have been on holidays for a week and a half and have totally lost track of what day it is! What a great problem to have!
   So if it's Thursday today that means on Tuesday I set out on a little trip to the ever-reliable (and close) Warbler Woods to do some hill repeats. Most of Eastern Canada is in the middle of a drought and heat epidemic and London is no different. Because of this I had this conversation with myself on the way to the woods as to whether I should even be venturing outside. It was about 33C (91F) and the humidex was through the roof and I thought that these really were not the ideal conditions to be running in, particularly hill repeats. The headline "Runner Found Collapsed in the Woods" kept passing through my mind. In my defence, however, I have always been someone who was able to carry on performing strenuous activities in high heat. I also knew that the hill repeats would be, for the most part, in the shade of the woods.

   I walked briskly to the woods (in deference to the heat, I didn't run) and this was just under 2K. Along the way, I took some pics of my neighbourhood!

A quick walk to the end of my street
where I then...

...turn left and head up the long incline toward the Woods.

The hill just goes up until you get to....

...Holy Moses! Bullrushes!

Then, MORE bullrushes,  this time on the
left. Beyond the bullrushes, you can see...

...Warbler Woods, an environmentally
significant area!

Aahhh....shade at last!

The first (and worst) hill! Hard to tell
but it's about a 45 degree angle and
about twenty yards long with a
twist to the right at the top of this pic.

From the top, looking back down.
Pic is slightly fuzzy due to
my physical distress at the time! lol

   There were another four or five hills which were almost as tough as the first one but I managed to get out alive just fine! Basically I ran the hills and walked briskly the rest of the time (occasionally, not quite so briskly) until I exited on the far side of the woods. From there, about another kilometer back to my house, and re-hydration!
   

Trying Not To Get My Butt Kicked

   Last night, someone on social media threatened to come to my front door and kick my butt if I didn't get off it and go for a run and so, today, I did just that!
  I decided that I would just do a nice, easy run and maybe tack on an extra kilometer while I was at it. Currently, my "training" regimen involves nothing much more than getting out there and running the same 5K course over and over, with the occasional hill repeat session thrown in. This meant that today I would be doing a whole 6K! Woo hoo!

   The plan was fairly straightforward---I would run 3K in one direction and then turn around and run back. I left open the option of stopping after 5K but knew that I really didn't want to do that. I headed off in the opposite direction of what I usually do (so daring) and this meant that, thankfully, I was running more or less downhill for the first couple of kilometers. I got to the halfway mark feeling pretty comfortable, had a quick swig from the water bottle and then headed back. I hit the 5K mark with no real desire to stop and so kept on running. At this point, my slowly evolving plan now included a walk through Warbler Woods and perhaps some hill repeats therein. I estimated that running that final kilometer would have me reach the woods at the end of it and this was the way it more or less worked out. The final half a kilometer was a killer though and I knew there would be no running of the hills in Warbler.

For your perusal,  what  Warbler
Woods is all about.

I think coyotes come, hoping
to feed on old people....

   As it was, walking the hills in Warbler almost did me in. There is a series of about six hills, all of which seem to go straight up and twisting at the same time, not to mention the rocks and root systems along the way. Being a Saturday, I ran into a couple of other sets of walkers who all agreed that we were in the middle of a true cardio experience. About two thirds of the way through, things seem to level off a little and become a little more like a "walk in the woods". I couldn't help but think that there should be warning signs at either end of the forest just to warn people what they're up against. Especially old people. Like me.

Did I mention the treacherous root systems?

   Once out of the woods, it was another almost kilometer to get me back home where lunch and re-hydration awaited. My plan (why do I make plans?) is to gradually up the mileage on the weekends and try to get in a couple of shorter runs throughout the week.

Same spot, today.

My wife and I took this pic back
in the Spring.....

   So you know how some people have a running playlist of tunes, helping them kill time and/or motivate themselves on long runs? Well, today I had a blogging playlist---songs I listened to while coming up with this gem of a blog post. It will definitely "date" me but here it is anyway!

Cat Stevens-18th Avenue
Cat Stevens-Monad's Anthem
Paul Simon-Duncan
Richard Harris-MacArthur Park
Moody Blues-Thursday Afternoon
John Williams-Jurassic Park
Simon and Garfunkel-The Boxer
Miklos Rosza-King of Kings
Paul Stookey-There Is Love
Leonard Cohen-Show Me The Place
Tori Amos-Crucify
Nena-99 Red Balloons
Richard Shindell-Transit
Gary Jules-Mad World
Damion Rice-Moody Monday
Chumbawumba-Tubthumping
Tove Lo-Habits (Stay High)
Melanie-Stoneground Words

   Did I mention it might date me??