Jay Richards

Moments before this picture was taken, Larry says: "one two three ladies, tits up" Classic Larry. A couple comments shortly on L and L and life in Essex MT......Today I scratched out some more logs that my dad had cut up so I had a pretty nice pile going but it was stacked a bit high. Sure enough, some logs rolled off. So before supper and after running kids to piano etc, I put the fork back on and made a second pile. I took the fork off after and was cranking down the levers to secure the bucket...I was holding on to the cab kinda funny, I was swung down to close the lever but instead I missed, flipped up in the air, fell on the tracks, crashed into the push mower before falling on cement. Yikes. I was extremely lucky not to bust my head open. I came away with just some scratches and bruises. I am sure I will feel it in the am.

Good thing I snuck out mid afternoon for a fast lap. First time I have done a full lap since the Monday before the Loppet. It was fast and tack, still a bit mucky/spongy, you know what I mean, on the ski trail but the singletrack was perfect. I still think it was a bit faster last Monday but I managed to crank out my fastest lap of the year in 47:05. Almost 3 minutes off. When I was halfway in I knew I was running a good time. I don't know if I could hold that pace for a second lap (2 laps at 1:34.10? probably not but good to know I am still hanging on to some high end.

So, Larry and Lynda rolled in late last night. We didn't see them but they show up at 6:30am this morning to see the kids before they went to school. They look great. They sold the Izaak Walton Inn in January after doing some serious work to totally restore it when they took over in the 80's I think. They were ranching/farming in Big Sandy Mt and wanted a change of pace. Jonell and I worked there for three years, doing everything it takes to keep a resort/hotel running. Just like here at Maplelag. My main job in the winter was leading day trips in Glacier National Park on bc skis. It was a great experience and Jonell and I have some great memories when we lived out there. We just had Jake at the time and he picked up his shyness, you could say, because there were no other kids there and Jonell and I worked opposite shifts so we could take care of him without daycare. Jonell worked only 3-4 days a week but when the seasonal staff went back to school, Jonell worked 5-6 days a week and I had to work some 14-18 days in a row to cover all the bases. The craziest was when I would be cooking and waiting tables and we would get slammed with off the road traffic and running around fluster#$%@% like they say in the trenches in the kitchen. I would stare out those huge windows in the dining room, gazing at the beautiful mountains of the Flathead National Forest and the Essex chute that I skied solo and will probably never ski again since it was crazy steep and avalanches always run there. Anyways, life in Essex was like one big soap opera. Still is today after talking to L and L this morning. I have never seen such a mix bag of people coming and going as staff. And you have the locals that are either social misfits, anti-government folks, railroad bums, lovers of the outdoors and nature (we fit into that category, I think) and the transplants from CA, WA and OR that were on a identity crisis. Larry and Lynda were two of the hardest working people I have ever met.

I learned from Larry grooming at 3 or in the morning having the trails in tip top shape before the first skiers hit the trail. "Larry, the groomer is leaking hydraulic oil!" "if it ain't leaking it ain't working" . Larry and his son built a groomer. It was kick ass. It was super fast. Had a 451 Ford engine it. The whole thing was home made. I think the cab was maybe from a Tucker. He had the front spec'd so he could run a YTS front end renovator and the back was set up to run a YTS compactor bar with dual tracksetters of course. One spring we replaced the entire cleat system on the tracks. It was a crazy job. Another crazy job was polishing hundreds of railroad spikes because Larry welded them together to make lamps. Eric, the head groomer, said Larry was going to start making beds with spikes. Larry tried to teach me how to weld but all that current running through my body freaked me out too much. He showed us how to have some fun with oxygen and acetelyne. Yikes!

The first spring I went with them to Bear Valley CA for the ski convention. We flew in and out of Sacremento. The night before we were to fly home, Larry said "Lets go have some steak and lobster" so we asked where the best restaurant was for that and took the rental there. When we got there, they said there was a dress code. Larry says "I'm from Montana, there is no dress code" so the let us in and we had a nice meal. Not before Larry says "the cheap red shit" when the waitress asked what type of wine we wanted.

Gosh there are so many more stories. I should just keep going since it is good to get these written down for my own sake. Bear with me. People would always ask what was the strangest/wierdest thing to happen to you. Larry said "well, we had a I guy that croaked (died) in a room" To make a long story short, Larry had to help carry the guy out of the room. I guess the housekeeper at that time never went into the room so of course Larry and Lynda had to clean it themselves.

Then you had Joanie and Alfred. Alfred worked for the railroad and retired in the town of Essex, pop. 50 I think. They had a couple hundred of black cats. The cats urinated all over the place. Joanie and Alfred would walk into the hotel and when they would leave, the smell would linger for 15 minutes. Larry had a bounty on the cats. Whenever Joanie and Alfred went to town the maintenance guy and whoever would try to kill off some of the cats. No one ever made a dent. The cats kept cranking out more cats. Speaking of which, kinda, today Larry tells the groom who is here for the wedding at Maplelag this weekend that if he is lucky his best man will say in his toast " I hope the only ups and downs in your marriage are in between your sheets". Oh, thats probably enough for now.

BTW, L and L are the ones making a Jens sandwhich in the photo above. They are heading back to Essex where they built a beautiful home a few weeks ago looking toward Running Rabbit mountain in GNP. They just spent a week on Lake Superior with their friends Pat and Harry on a ore ship.