Jay Richards

Chris Ziegler "Zigs" has been home most of the month of May from his third year attending the U of Vermont. As the crow flies, Zigs lives about 8 miles from Maplelag. We hooked up for a ride today, meeting at the intersection of Mary Yellowhead road and trails which is about 6 miles from my house and 6 miles from his house. We rode about 20 miles of tight quad trail, singletrack and a bit of bushwhacking. Most of the trail is pretty raw, rough, rooty and beats the crap out of you. No signs, maps etc. You just go down a trail and see where it takes you and eventually comes back up to the trail and you hit another quad trail. Total ride on the day was about 34 miles. Perfect conditions, great ride. Its been fun looking at some of the longer rides on Garmin Connect. Here are the ride details if interested.
(elevation got off for some reason)

Zigs has been exploring the past few weeks and found some cut over trails but they aren't really trails. This time of year is great with the woods more open and you just explore.
Climbs and descents are punchy. Zigs was ripping it up nicely, looking strong.
Section of singletrack Zigs cut when he was in high school. There is tons of potential in the area.
Typcial trail on the east side of Mary Yellowhead trail.
Some areas had been logged and lots of small logs, and branches and stumps to keep the senses dialed in 100%.
One of the longer climbs. This was on the east side trails which borders the Tamarac Refuge. Best riding is over here I thought. If you grab the map and pull it up you can see a bunch of forest roads that make way to Hiway 34 and Detroit Lakes. Another option on the point to point idea I'm trying to get going is to run from DL to Maplelag. The advantages of the DL to Maplelag option is starting in a town, better transport for after the race, more lodging options, could probably get Chamber involved but some of the trail segments are kind of boring. Even so, I think if you added some of the trails we rode today, and some of the Maplelag stuff near the end, it could be an adequate course for all levels of riders. Definitely would be harder at the end. I did find some quad trail near Detroit Mountain that is state land that could make things interesting. One of this years I will figure something out. Just want to have it figured out before jumping in for good.

Jake had a bunch of friends over last night so he stayed back with them. I cooked up a big breakfast after they pulled all nighter sitting around the bonfire area and watching the stars. I thought they went to bed about 2am and when Ethan (dude putting down his 12th piece of bacon) came knocking on the door at 6:45 asking if he could make breakfast at the lodge. Yeah, right! I wondered why they were up so early. I thought for sure they would sleep in til 1 like Jack did. Jon, Jens and Jack were pretty lucky they got to hang out. There were even three girls that came the night before. Good kids. Jon pulled the "baller" move I guess giving out hugs when they had to leave. Alright, thats enough information.