The weather was perfect for a short bike ride in Fish Creek Park today and, as usual, we headed to the eastern part of the park,where the Bow River provides such a wide variety of sights and sounds. We rode south from the Ranch parking lot, with no plans to stop for any geocaches. But since we ride with our Garmin Map 60CSx mounted on handlebars, we could see Stash n’ Dash on the edge of the map screen. And since at one point we were less than 400 meters from where Stash was most recently stashed, Mrs. GeoK couldn’t resist riding over to pick up this grandfathered, moving geocache.
Otherwise, we only stopped to admire flowers, birds or views. The strangest thing we saw today was a set of stairs leading to a viewing platform in the middle of an otherwise vacant lot. After a bit of discussion we concluded it was placed there to allow realtors to show prospective homeowners what kind of view they would have from the main floor of a house built anywhere along this row of lots.
On a completely unrelated note, last night Calder showed me how to switch my Canon A650 IS camera to shoot in black and white mode. I tried the colourless setting on a couple of flowers and a twisted old log. Can you see the man pouring out a bucket of water?
My last photo-taking stop was along the golf course, just before we crossed back over the Bow River via the pedestrian suspension bridge. As I rode past, I spotted a small patch of yellow. I got lucky and this American Goldfinch stayed in place long enough for me to snap several pictures, all at full optical zoom. Thanks to Stokes Field Guide to Birds (Western Region), I was able to make the identification once we returned home.
Our total riding distance today was a little over 18 km, with only one geocache found. Perhaps we’ll get in a longer ride, with more geocaches found, tomorrow!
