The weather report promised rain all week, including all day today, threatening to wash out R.’s birthday bike ride. But then it was just kind of gray in the morning, and then the sun came out, so what the hell, we said, let’s through caution to the wind and ride our bikes, predictions be damned! We are risk takers, what. After loading up on carbs at the local coffee shoppe, we headed down the hill and around the stadiums to the start of the Gwynns Falls Trail behind BARCS for another ride around the harbor. That entrance is like a secret, and I was happy to give R. the gift of knowing how to get on the trail she can see from 295. We pedaled along in the sunshine and she politely listened to my reporting–this is where the encampment used to be, this is were the cat pied piper incident happened, no, I don’t know what all these strips of rubber are from but look! waste treatment plant! and here are the safety cones and the power substation and be careful on the tracks and then we were on the trail through Middle Branch Park. We made a quick trip to the end of the first wooden pier, agreed nothing untoward ever happened there or in the brush below, nothing to see here, folks, before continuing on our way, agreeing that’s a nice pier to park the boats we’ll never have and then I demanded a full stop. Because there were baby geese. Sure, they were wandering down this boat ramp littered with garbage a rotting fish carcass, but whatever: GOSLINGS! We watched as they took their sips of water, shaking their heads up to get the water to go down, before three of them wandered in the water and a third one sat down. Oh, baby waterfowl, you are my favorite sign of spring. We sat on a bench and talked about what’s been going on and what might happen next, and then R. looked over her shoulder at the sky, and it was time to race that thunderstorm home. We both beat it, me just in time, and I watched the sky open up from my covered porch. An excellent day, indeed. Next ride: 100 miles from Ocean City, Maryland. Bring it!