Late October means peak leaf peeping season, and therefore it also means it’s time for the one “event” I organize under Bike Portage Club, the Burnabop XL. Originally scheduled for Saturday October 24, it was extended into a two day event since Saturday’s weather was looking so wet (and some folks could only make Sunday).
The day before I rode town to Richmond to pick up the participant stickers:
It started raining Saturday morning around 8:45am, and even just riding to the start for 9:30am (about 7km for me), I was drenched. It was going to be a long, soggy day for Saturday’s crew. Bud and all-around good guy Harry was there with a box of coffee and Timbits, which was universally appreciated. I really wasn’t sure what to expect when it came to how many people would show up. The starting window was 9:30 – 10:30am; the idea here is that a mass-start doesn’t suit the small trails, so having folks roll out over an hour would spread things out enough but still result in folks seeing each other out there. By 9:45am only a handful of riders had arrived, so I assumed it was going to be a pretty quiet day – and most of the coffee would not be drank.
However, to my surprise, people kept rolling in, and by 10:30am almost 30 riders were off to get soaked and lost. I didn’t count, maybe it was 25. A good number for me – not too big, not too small of an event. These trails would not suit 100 riders going through in a day, after all.
After everyone had departed, I rode home and got prepared for the finish line fest. Last year all I did was stand by a gate with a few celebratory beers available in my bag. This year I got more organized, borrowing tents and fire pits, picking up a variety of beverages and snacks. I also got unsolicited but invaluable help from friends – especially LA who came out both days with an extra tent, tables, and snacks.
Finishers were cold but stoked. I don’t think anyone had a bad time. Huge thanks to Graham and Laur for the fire pits because I don’t think anyone would have hung out without those being there.
Day two was going to be the same schedule. I replenished the propane for the fires and picked up a few more snacks. In stark contrast to the day before, there was blue skies at the start – though it turned cloudy for the rest of the day.
On Day 1, the first finishers came through just after 2:30pm. Today, it was 3:45 before Vik and Mike, the first finishers of the day, rolled down the hill. The difference was very much the weather – Saturday’s rain and cold made stopping much less possible. Sunday’s crew were all there to forest bathe and take their time a bit more. The Hotdogsonwheelz crew rolled in just a few minutes later. A little while later the final group rolled in and thanks to the fires and slightly better weather, we hung out until past dusk.
We had one scare; two riders were hit (low speed) by a car in an intersection in South Burnaby, but thankfully okay. This is definitely a fear of mine, organizing an unofficial and unsupported ride like this. The route avoids cars as much as possible, but not entirely. The course also took out a few tires, in one case resulting in a DNF (sorry Corey!). A handful of silly crashes (biggest one goes to Sam S!) but thankfully no injuries for the day, even with the car situation.
Only a few days after returning from the island, I had to make another sizeable drive up to the Okanagan for my brother’s wedding. I stayed in a basement suite thru VRBO that put me in mid town near the lake, and brought the Bike Friday along:
Pretty sweet that the bike and my stuff all fit in the trunk – my first stop upon arrival in Kelowna was a meet-and-greet, before I could even check into my suite, so this way I didn’t have to worry about the car being out of sight for a while.
I drove up Hwy 5 and 97C through Merritt, which I haven’t done in quite a few years – it was sobering to see the extent of fire damage in some areas.
When I wasn’t committed to family things, I walked around and familiarized myself with Kelowna a bit since I haven’t really spent much time here. I saw a California Quail, which are pretty common here.
I also got out for a quick bike ride before it got dark, just down to the lake. It’s no ocean, but it’s pretty nice. The morning of the wedding ceremony was super windy and the waves crashing ashore definitely reminded me of the ocean!
I was really pleasantly surprised by the amount of bike infrastructure throughout Kelowna. It’s honestly better than most of Vancouver!
Without getting into too much detail about the wedding reception, it was very unorthodox and a lot of fun. They rented out a music venue and had a series of performers, including a band which played a lot of hits from the 90s – nostalgic for sure.
The next morning I was checked out of my rental and drove down to Penticton, about an hour away, to go for a ride with my mom and her husband. We took bike paths out to the Kettle Valley Railway, and rode that up into the hillside to Abandoned Rail brewing for a beer and sandwich. It ended up being about 30 km round trip, then I shoved off back towards home, on Hwy 3 this time – making a loop of it; a habit I think I picked up from Strava!
For five years now, the CJBR has been traditionally held on the Saturday of the (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend. This year it was moved to the Monday as I didn’t get back from our Port Renfrew trip until Saturday evening. Thankfully (no pun intended) all my pals whom normally come were able to make it and we had a crew of eight.
I was excited to use the Beachcomber for this ride, as it was one of the rides I had in mind when deciding to buy it. Historically I’d ride my single speed Wombat, which is now sold. Gears and disc brakes are luxuries and I definitely had the most optimal bike for the route at hand.
The route has alternated between a bit loop of Burnaby or a hilly two-bridge loop of North and West Vancouver. The target is for it to be about 50km, with elevation in the 800-1000m range. This is a big effort for some participants who don’t ride nearly as regularly as I do, but achievable by the whole group.
We met at Trout Lake and took the BC Parkway through Central Park, which was looking great in the autumn sun. The shenanigans began when we reached Kaymar ravine, which is featured on this year’s Burnabop XL route. In fact, we followed the whole southern portion of the BBXL route for the most part.
As we reached Fraser Foreshore park, we stopped for some food then headed to the far end to see if the path had re-opened yet – it had been closed for almost two years for some big construction project, but we were happy to find it open, which also means the original Burnabop XL course can return to its original form. 2027’s route is sorted!
After a beer at the terminus (above) and some mild shenanigans, we started making our way north, up to the Byrne ravine courtyard. This stretch of route is mostly gravel and quite lovely – the train track crossing looks sketchy but it’s a low-to-no traffic route.
At the courtyard, fellow (and much more experienced) birder Karen tricked me into thinking there was a cool bird – I ran and grabbed my monoculars at her request – but it was actually a tube full of Fireball that was marketed as a hockey stick but made into a bird shape by KB and Rob. Quite crafty and sneaky!
We strapped it to the front of my bike as can be seen below, and it remained there for the rest of the ride. Some Fireball was consumed, and the rest stowed. We also buried a bottle of gueuze, something we had done two years ago at this spot as well. We didn’t try very hard to find the old bottle; perhaps in two years we will return for both.
Also, Dave took a spill quite randomly a little while after the courtyard hangout, which probably wasn’t due to the Fireball but we can’t rule that out. He was scraped up but otherwise fine. Eventually we ended up at Dageraad for a round of beers, and then from there it was another 16 km to home – my mileage total ended up over 70km, which was a bit of a surprise!
This is a mostly non-bike post about our family (Aimée and I plus the two pups) trip to a cabin in Port Renfrew. The last time we had a proper vacation like this was last October to Ucluelet / Tofino, so it has been a year. Next year we’ll endeavour to get a spring as well as an autumn adventure in. We chose Port Renfrew because it’s an area of the island we hadn’t been before, and we knew from last year’s trip how much we liked the west coast of the island with the big waves and beautiful and secluded beaches.
Since I got into birding last December, this year also included taking some kit to do some birdwatching along the way too – I was excited that there were opportunities to see stuff I wouldn’t likely see back home. Leia’s at 13 years and 7 months of age now and her health is not what it once was, so we also wanted to make sure she could enjoy another adventure – hopefully not her last. This would be Sunny’s second road trip with us.
The drive out was pretty uneventful; we got the upper deck on the ferry which meant we could stay in the car if we wanted – a really big plus with the dogs. On the other side, we stopped briefly in Victoria and Sooke along the way before the final stretch – about an hour of winding highway around the southwest corner of the island and up. It was quite fun to drive, though the road was really bumpy in sections and pushed my car’s overloaded suspension to the max. Below is a view just past Jordan River.
We arrived at the cabin with some daylight to spare. I brought along the Bike Friday because I wanted to ride up to see Big Lonely Doug, located about 17km from town up some logging roads, and it sounded like my car might not be sufficient to get there. Also, check out those fat tires – I recently replaced the original tires and sized up to get a bit more ground clearance – which was really appreciated on this trip!
The cabin itself is small but modern, and importantly includes a fire pit and hot tub. I also appreciated it had a covered outdoor area but we never had rain during the day on our trip, thankfully.
When I say small, I mean it – it was around 380 sq ft I believe including the bedroom and bathroom, which left only a bit of space for the kitchen/dining/living area. Cozy and all we need, but it did get cluttered up quick with the dog beds and all our stuff!
The first morning, we both got up pretty early and walked down to the pier a few blocks away with the dogs. It was colder than back home – about 7C – but sunny and clear. I saw a red-throated loon, so got to add that to my birding ‘life list’.
After breakfast we drove to Fairy Lake nearby, home of the ‘bonsai tree’ in the lake which is pretty well known. Despite its small stature, the tree is apparently about 50 years old!
There is also a campground on the lake with some quite massive trees throughout – and just a beautiful bit of forest to walk around. Of course I did some bird photography too – a heron, stellar’s jay, juncos, sparrows, and I heard a pack of red crossbills (not yet on my life list) repeatedly but never got a look / photo. That’s a bird that has been on the top of my list for a while and I have failed numerous times to see! They tend to stay up high and move quickly.
After lunch we headed to Botany Bay, a short drive but fairly long walk from the parking lot down to the water. Botany Bay reminded me a lot of Ucluelet with the dark rocky shoreline and big waves. Both Sunny and Leia really enjoy being at the sea shore and had a great time.
We ended up staying until sunset and made the ~1.5 km hike out in relative darkness. Aimée and I both took a million photos, but I’ll stick to sharing just a few here.
The rest of the day was spent making dinner and soaking in the tub, along with uploading all the photos of the day. This had been the first of three full days of the trip.
The second day started out with a drive up to Avatar grove, an area with some old growth trees just outside town. It used to have boardwalks, but they’ve all been destroyed as the grove is technically closed since 2022 and unmaintained since 2018. What this meant for us is that it was a lot more challenging to hike than expected! Aimée very nearly didn’t go in, with the first part being a really steep and slippery slope, but we both managed to get down to some of the big trees and back out without a fall.
First though we stopped along the water just other side of the river:
We headed back to the cabin for some lunch and rest, and realized during this time that Botany Bay, which we’d visited yesterday, was not the same as Botanical Beach – the latter located a little ways south. Botanical Beach was the spot we knew we wanted to go, so we checked the tides and realized we had to get there ASAP.
We got down there to some fog and misty rain which added to the ambiance of the unique place.
Below, some harlequin ducks foraging along the shore:
The far end had the best tide pools as well as waves crashing into scalloped out sections of the rock:
Sunny is such a long dog.
Below is an example of the intricate tide pools; some were much deeper.
We made our way out in dusk once again, and when Leia started growling at something in the woods we realized we had two dinner-sized dogs in an area with cougars and wolves – so we booked it out pretty fast, bear spray in hand.
The next morning was our final full day of the vacation and with how physically active the first two days were, Aimée was happy to have a chill morning – my chance to head out and make the Old Lonely Doug pilgrimage. This tree is the second largest known Douglas Fir in Canada and has become an icon for old growth protection in BC the past 15 years since it was spared. Needless to say it was really important to me to see this tree up close in person.
I threw the Bike Friday in the back seat and drove up to Avatar grove, parking in the same place I did previously. From here it was another 8km or so up the logging road, across a bridge that spans a deep valley, then up a pretty rough and narrow road to Doug himself. The road was mucky from last night’s rains, and strewn with rocks, but the Bike Friday was a great little rig for the trip.
Up the final stretch I got my first breathtaking view of Big Lonely Doug:
The trail down to Doug is pretty short but quite technical; not a good trail to carry a bike down but a) I’ve made a bit of a habit of taking a bike to hard-to-access old growth trees and b) the Bike Friday is the perfect portage rig, compact and light and the single tube frame is at just the right height to be a lift tube.
The fact that Doug is surrounded by young growth gives him a unique presence. Photos cannot do justice of the presence this tree has, it’s really quite powerful. I’m very happy I made the trek. The largest Douglas Fir in Canada is the Red Creek fir which is located not too far from here also – but far enough out of the way it wasn’t happening this trip. I prioritized Big Lonely Doug because of its cultural significance and being a little easier to get to. Heck, I went home with a sticker of him!
I was back to the cabin by noon, and after lunch our next destination was Mystic Beach, a ways down the coastline. Today was meant to be a rest day, but we didn’t realize the hike down to the beach was over 1km of technical trail with lots of staircases, whoops!
The beach itself was lovely, however the unexpected time involved to get to it meant the tide was a bit too high to get all the way across. I risked wet feet just to get the photo below – note the little waterfall on the left.
Leia had a very adorable nap on the log, basking in the sun, while we watched waves and had snacks.
And don’t miss Sunny down below!
For our last evening of the trip we made sure to have a fire – something we didn’t bother to do the first two nights. We struggled to get it to keep going at first (no fire starter and the logs / paper were a bit damp from the rain overnight) but we used veggie chips as fire starter which did the trick!
Day five of the trip was our travel day home. Our ferry reservation wasn’t until 7pm, giving us time to make some stops along the way – one of them was unfortunately to a Victoria vet to get Leia’s eye looked at; turns out she got a scratch on it two days prior, we expect from a header into the rocks at Botany Bay. But we also were able to stop at another beach, this time Sandcut Beach a little further south than Mystic.
The hike down was shorter than any of our previous hikes, but still a decent amount of stairs / descending from the parking lot. It wasn’t a super interesting beach compared to some of the others, but the waves were good and the sun was shining.
Without a doubt the highlight for me was when I heard a pack of red crossbills again – and this time got to see them, and even get a few decent photos! After a few months of trying, it felt real good to check this one off the list. As the name suggests, check out how their bill crosses over itself – for prying open conifer cones.
The girls were getting used to beach relaxing at this point, as well:
Back at the ferry terminal for our boat we were treated to a heck of a sunset, including a bit of rainbow for good measure.
So that’s it, five days of Port Renfrew vacation, a great success overall. I bought this new fancy camera (Fujifilm X-T5) and lenses on a bit of an impulse right before the trip because I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to get to use it here and I’ve no regret about that – managed some very good photos. I’ll get the camera paid off over the next couple months .. before I get tempted by even bigger lenses for birding.
Truth and Reconciliation Day, fairly recently made a statutory holiday, landed on a Wednesday this year. I don’t take this day lightly, as much as I try to be mindful and supportive of indigenous rights and the harms they’ve endured and continue to endure throughout the year. In addition to donating my pay for the day I wanted to do something that honoured the day while also being a very “me” thing to do.
It didn’t take long to realize what I wanted to do: I wanted to ride up the Seymour valley, a place that I feel a deep connection and sense of belonging with, and visit my favourite old growth trees all in one go. Since this area was logged almost entirely in the first fifty years or so that the area became widely colonized, these trees are sometimes referred to as survivors. A stark parallel to those who’ve survived the residential school system.
So my plan for the day was pretty ambitious, hiking up to the huge red cedars near Seymour Lake that sit upon the steep hillside below Gibbons peak, then visiting the old Sitka in the valley just south of the lake, and then hiking up to Temple Giant, the most notable Douglas fir in the Seymour valley. But also, I wanted to appreciate the small things as well, and take my time.
Autumn’s colours are well underway around here, though once you get into contiguous forest, it’s mostly green year-round. Still, the big leaf and vine maples as well as the less hardy ferns were giving off beautiful yellows and oranges.
My ride of choice was once again the Stooge Rambler, a bike that’s seen a lot of saddle time in the less than two months I’ve owned it. There’s nothing I’m really looking to change, either – will probably swap the older 11s XT derailleur and 11-46T cassette for Deore 11s stuff once these wear out to gain a little more low end range, but that’s about it. These Rene Herse Umtanums have about 3000km on them across three bikes now, and I would say they’re only half worn, so I don’t expect to worry about tires until at least next summer, same as the half-worn drivetrain.
I didn’t take a lot of photos along Fisherman’s since this is a trail I’ve ridden countless times, but did stop for the photo below of a particularly nice foliage gradient – the banana slug pictured above is from right by my front tire in this frame. The next photo is at the mid-valley marsh, an iconic spot for those who ride this valley and quite a unique ecosystem around here.
After the mid-valley marsh it’s on to Spur 4, the gravel access road that flanks the east side of the river, versus the paved parkway on the west side. I had noticed this old skidder road before but never bothered to explore it until today – interestingly, it leads to what is very much a trail, but then trail ends at a stump at the top of a steep slope. Not a bad place to hang out, in fairness.
Near the north end of Spur 4 is a grove of old trees that were spared during logging – Bigfoot, below left, is marked and right along the roadway so most people who frequent this route will be familiar. Nearby is another big tree without a placard but with a heron nesting tag, pictured below right.
I also noticed that mushroom season is well underway, and was happy to see a violet web cap. I parked the bike and hiked up to the pair of red cedars about 150m up the steep slope. The trees I was heading to are pictured a little ways down:
Next it was back down the hill (slipping too many times) and onto the bike to cross the river to where the ancient Sitka are. My favourite bit of woods in the valley and no hiking required – though it’s at the far end of the valley.
Then on I went to visit the Temple Giant. Located almost halfway back out of the valley, it’s a 15 minute hike through the woods to get to it – not too steep until the last 50m or so. There’s not really a trail, though sometimes you can make out a vague path, but there’s flagging that helps.
At this point, my goal was achieved, and I made my way out of the valley. I took the photo below on a new-to-me little trail near Inter-River park and didn’t notice the falling leaf in the foreground until I uploaded it here!
Niki and I have been saying we should ride together for a long time now, and today we finally did. We chose to do a Burnaby loop that followed a lot of my 2026 iteration of Burnabop XL , albeit a shorter loop. It still ended up being about 50km door-to-door though.
I chose my now-trusty Rambler as Niki was riding her gravel bike too. The Rambler’s proven to be exactly what I’d hoped for; a very capable bike on the rough stuff while still feeling good on pavement. It’s a bit heavy but I don’t notice it. With the knobby 2.2″ Rene Herse tires it’s pretty much perfect for my needs, but I do look forward to trying bigger tires next summer for some bikepacking routes.
One of the reasons for doing this Burnaby loop, the same reason the Burnabop XL event happens in October, is that these trails are at their peak in autumn since they have largely deciduous trees along them.
We also did the Chines descent, which is deeply rutted and only partially rideable (see below) but has enough beauty along the way to make it more than worthwhile (if you don’t mind some underbiking).
The vine maples are becoming more chartreuse, but still hanging onto their leaves for a while yet it looks like. The same cannot be said for the big leaf maples, which have already covered the ground along the TCT near Capitol Hill! I hope they keep enough leaves to thoroughly cover the ground for Burnabop XL Day, still almost a month away.
Not a particularly interesting ride; this was just after-work errands on the old Raleigh. But some cool photos, I thought, so here is a post.
The main errand was picking up medication for Leia from the specialist vet in Olympic Village, but just so happens that Sollys bagelry is only a block away, and not too far from there is Beer Island – where I enjoyed, you guessed it, a beer.
While enjoying said beer, I watched across the water where a parade of kayakers, dragon boaters, and water taxis made their way. I also noted some relatively new artwork on the steps across the channel, as well as the autumn colours on the nearby trees:
As dusk approaches, the skies always fill with crows headed to roost in Burnaby. Today’s dramatic clouds added to the effect nicely:
Cyclocross season is upon us, and after being cancelled a couple times it was nice to see the Vanier Park event happening this year. I realized I had a friend racing at 10:15am while I had my coffee at 9:30, so hastily made my way across town on the Stooge Rambler to spectate.
The 10:15 races included entry level mens and womens, as well as the single speed and fixed gear tracklocross groups. Some very sweet bikes! And a tandem?!
The day was pretty dry and therefore dusty; probably good for the health of the grass, but not really in the spirit of cyclocross racing.
This off-camber, hard packed corner took many victims; here are a few I saw:
The uphill barrier jumps were entertaining as well; below are a couple racers in very close quarters. I am not much for bike racing, but the technical nature and close-quarter racing is something I would really enjoy.
I also did a fair bit of dog watching:
Here’s Tom in a classic Tom pose (right) and a surprising amount of lean on the off-camber turn by an unknown racer.
The elite women’s group was small but fast. The elite men’s group was also quite small; not sure why the event drew a relatively small number of fast folks out this year.
I was quite impressed to see a couple racers who did jump these tall barriers – on a steep uphill after the aforementioned off-camber slippery corner, it didn’t seem possible to me. But I was proven wrong as noted below. The final photo is of the wispy clouds on my ride home from the event.
There are three local mountains when it comes to both skiing and MTB, though the middle one is not the same between the two. Cypress, at the west end of them, is unique in either case. When it comes to MTB, it is the most challenging and unforgiving. I simply rode up the access trails this day but the difficulty shines through.
Also worth noting it’s the furthest from home for me, so a Cypress route will always exceed 50km and a good bit of elevation, mostly concentrated at the far end. The first 15 km or so are pretty typical of many of my rides, then there’s the gradual ascent via some connecting trails and side roads.
Then, of course, is Rob’s famous (not really) fence line. I didn’t take any photos worth sharing on this ride but I’ve documented it a few times in the past. After a bit of hike-a-bike from the end of that fenceline up to Chippendale I was rewarded with the first (and last) good views of the day:
From there I climbed Fern Trail, which is brutal to start but eases off after a bit, and then BLT – which is the gravel access road for the variety of MTB trails in this zone as well as service vehicle access to the power lines. It’s steep, it’s loose, and it’s rocky. Spinning out was an issue on the bike and slipping out was an issue when pushing on the worst parts, but dang, it’s beautiful in these woods. My photos make it look at lot more pleasant because I only took photos on the beautiful parts!
My destination was this clearing at the third switchback of the paved road, which at this time was being repaved and bikes were not allowed due to the lack of space. Despite being higher up than the lookout on the second switchback there is no view to be had here, the trees block it entirely. I came here hoping to see some hawks – I even lugged my big camera and zoom lens all the way up to what was now 650m elevation – but didn’t see much.
But the journey is the real gift anyway, right. The descent was a bit sketchy at times but a heck of a lot less sweaty than the climb. Somewhat ironically, the best views opened up when I had dropped half the elevation I worked so hard for:
It has become tradition for me on these big Cypress rides to stop at the Ambleside concession and get fish n chips, washed down with a Fat Tug IPA purchased along the way. The sun was close to setting making it all the more pretty.
By the time I was back to the Lions Gate bridge, the sunset was in full swing. I was still about 45 minutes from home at this point but the route becomes uninteresting and I’m on autopilot the rest of the way – no need for photos. I got this stunner of the mouth of Capilano river though before the bridge:
A bit of a photo dump from the week. There was a swap meet organized by some friends where I took a handful of bits from my parts bin, and managed to sell a couple of the bigger ticket items too! I made three (three!) trips to the Maplewood Flats bird sanctuary on the other side of the bridge – twice after work, where I didn’t find a lot going on, and then once on Saturday morning to try to catch a little more action – and while it was not exactly teeming with birds, I did see some good stuff (and got some decent photos)!
As can be seen above, the swap meet was well-attended. It was followed by a parkbagging ride a few kilometres south. I don’t share enough dog photos on the blog considering how much of my time is spent with them, so here’s a couple from one of the mornings. Around 8am every day we get out for a 30-40 minute walk followed by 20-30 minutes at the dog park. The walk portion is to ensure Leia gets enough activity, since she just stands around awkwardly at the park.
A month ago, August 15th to be exact, I bought a Bike Friday.. again. I sold the last one because I came to appreciate that I simply didn’t have space for it. It was a good bike and fit the bill well, but did have some quirks – like a really high BB and heavy duty tubing; it was clearly built for all-terrain touring and overkill for my needs. This one feels considerably lighter and the geometry is better suited to my purposes. I’m still not sure how it is going to fit into the quiver, but it folds quite small, so for now it’s just stowed away until I figure out what I’m doing with it. For now I put on a handlebar, grips, and saddle from the stash:
The girls again at Pandora, next to the dog park:
I noticed that a couple rare birds had been seen at Maplewood Flats, which is about an 8km ride from home, so I took the Twenty over to look around. Evenings aren’t a great time for birding really, and it was pretty quiet. I did get a photo of the elusive brown creeper though, below.
Two days later and I went back again to see if I’d have better luck. I didn’t, but it is a nice way to spend the evening while the daylight hours are still long enough. This time I took the Bombadil, stopping along Lynn river on the way home.
My third trip to Maplewood was Saturday morning aboard the Bombadil again. Feels a bit wrong to lock it up out-of-sight for a couple hours, but bird sanctuaries have got to be particularly safe places for such.
Here are some photos I managed. I’m shooting with an old entry-level DSLR, a Nikon D5100, with a cheap 70-300mm lens. It doesn’t produce stunning photos but it works. I am actively saving up for a more modern setup; the auto-focus of today’s cameras will make bird photography so much less frustrating!
A first for me (new lifer, as the birders say) was this red-breasted sapsucker: not a great photo but enough to positively ID the bird.
I watched this chestnut-backed chickadee for a while in this tree, constantly moving around. Very similar in appearance to the much more common and curious black-capped chickadee, these chestnut backed versions are a lot more shy and quiet, and tend to stick to coniferous forests around here.
This song sparrow was not at all concerned about my proximity, I walked within a few feet without it flying away, allowing me to get a close-up shot:
And my favourite part of the trip was watching a couple downy woodpeckers work this area of woods. They are quite small and very neat looking.
