Detours on the Gateway

Today was my first of five voluntary furlough days at the U of Minnesota.  I remembered to turn off my alarm and sleep until 7:30 am!  Crawled out and did my morning yoga routine (thank you Kitty) and drank my first cup of coffee in the backyard while I watched our backyard critters.  One of two chipmunks is featured in this blog.  Will finally woke up and we packed up the bike first heading for excellent lingonberry waffles at http://www.steamworkscoffee.com/ where owners Jeff and Kristine remember your drinks and bring them to your table.  We leisurely read the paper and eventually got on the road for the Gateway Trail in St. Paul.  http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_trails/gateway/index.html  This is a heavily used commuter trail that passes through woodland, prairie and bogs.  In the spring you are serenaded by the peepers.  There is a parallel horse path for part of the trail. Today we encountered quite a few horses.  We were surprised when we hit a "Trail Closed" sign about 40 minutes into the ride.  We followed some other cyclists off to the horse path, then on to a road, across County Road 15 and down a gravel path for a short stretch.  Not the best surface for the tandem or its riders.  A new bridge is being built over County Road 15. This will make the trail safer and easier for riders.  Later (at the Dairy Queen) we discovered that a second bike trail bridge was being built over Century Avenue.  We never go that far west because of the difficulty in maneuvering across the street on our bike.  Great improvements; thanks to the DNR and the citizens of Minnesota that support and fund bike trails.  We are usually on this trail in early evening when we can fit a two hour ride in after work so it was revealing to see it in the light of day.  Butterflies were everywhere; splashes of colorful wildflowers lit up the sides of the trail.  We saw the orange of butterfly weed, the yellows of woodland sunflowers, grayheaded cone flowers, birds foot trefoil and butter and eggs, the pinks of spotted knapweed and wild bergamot, whites of prairie clover and sweet clover.  And the absolute best:  the rare find of a cluster of Turk's Cap Lily which we saw only once before on the Lake Wobegone trail.  That was more exciting than the deer running in front of us.  I've come to realize that being out in the country on our bike is important for my soul.   Not sure why it was so hard to get started this year.  Valuable happiness time lost.