Farewell Moonlander......

 .......I'll miss our time riding and swimming together. If you had a narrower bottom bracket I would have kept you, my knees can't handle it any more. I'll be looking for something to replace you and your enormous foot print in the future. I'll use the money I got for you to pay for my pack-raft and put a good dent in the Krampus I have on order. Farewell Moonlander , I will miss you.... my knees won't.

break time on top of the hill

 Way back in September I had a fat-bike swimming adventure with theses guys, Milltown, W.I.D., and Prairie Peddler.  This trip was Witt's idea, I just gave him a little nudge and we locked in a date during a ride we were on a couple weeks before. The plan was to ride the banks of the Cannon River ten miles upstream from Welch. We thought the river would be super low with the drought we had been experiencing all summer. When we got there we were surprised to see how deep it was.

This is proper docking procedure 

bikes are docked, time for a beer

  I was hoping for long stretches of sandbar and gravel riding. What we got was a lot of swimming. It was a little chilly in the morning so swimming was not that fun. By mid-afternoon the water was warm and our take-out point came too soon.

we rode this rapids section several times each

 After a couple miles of trying to ride in wheel-deep water during the cool morning hours we opted for the gravel road next to the river. The banks of the river were vertical  and the water was really deep. We entered the river again when the banks flattened out, but not before a little side trip.

This is what I envisioned for the ride. We encountered this only once.

Inner tubers on the right. We were tubing too, except ours are still on a the wheel.

 We didn't plan on riding through a field and up the nearby bluff, it just happened. Along side the road was signage indicating the field that lay before us was state land. We followed a faint trail through the tall grass up a hill to a vantage point and took our first break. We grabbed some snacks, and lounged around in the soft grass while basking in the sun. I'm not a drinker, but the other guys were enjoying a pre-noon beer. :)

Mr Witt, showing good form

 After the side trip, and a few miles of gravel, we were back on the river swimming and riding. We got some strange looks when we passed people on inner tubes and a camp ground. At the take-out in Welch we stopped for a burger, before getting on the Cannon Valley Trail and riding back to the vehicles.