First ride of the season

It's Memorial Day weekend and the start of our third year on our Rans Screamer. It's tradition to have our first ride on the Cannon Valley Trail leaving from Welch Station. The bike is tuned and hopefully ready to go. At the end of last season we were stopping every few miles to adjust the chain. An early morning rain had cleared out to mostly blue skies and temperatures in the 70s. The parking lot was full when we pulled up so it was on to the overflow lot. Welch has bathroom facilities and water. Musts for a good start. Bought our annual passes for $20.00 each. This is well worth the cost; the trail is the best maintained in Minnesota. There were crowds of people including lots of families. The kids were attracted to our "cool" bike as usual. Why are the pedals way out there? We still had long stretches of trail to ourselves. The Cannon River is low for this time of year due to our dry spring. This is the best trail for wildflower viewing. We ride past woodland to meadows seeing Dame's Rockets, Columbine, Wild Geranium, Winter Cress, Virginia Waterleaf, and lots of dandelions. The stoker holds the wildflower book as we slowly pass the flowers. Heard an owl!