Jay Richards

As far as Fall weather goes, it doesn't get much better than this week. The leaves seem to be changing daily and in a week to ten days they could all be down. I have been trying to spend as much time as possible working on the ski trails because we could have a rainy week on tap and shut things down for a while. There are some ski trails the only time I am on them are in the Fall mowing and the winter of course grooming. As I knock off these trails, the thought of the next time I pass through will be white is getting me stoked. I am driving Jonell crazy analyzing the Fall color. Too me it is absolutely fascinating because there is really only one week of the year that is like this. Anyways, I took Jonell out to the new singletrack and we hiked around in the woods a bit, checking out all the funky mushrooms and what not. Another thing that drives her crazy is when Jake and I will say "you know that one tree where that one rock and that one berm where those two trees are where you go up after you went down blah blah blah" So we checked things out and she was pretty impressed.
Taking the first berm nicely. This is where Jens no braked it and cleaned it. The small oak tree might have to go but I don't like cutting any oak trees unless I absolutely have to.



The past few nights has been perfect in the woods. We all went out last night to see the latest work by Jake. Jake and Lars built this one berm up and the dead tree we used is flat so you can ride on that as well.

I feel like I have done a good job brainwashing my kids, telling them the only thing they should concentrate on is singletrack.


Utilizing another dirt mound. Standing at the top, you can read a lot of the trail and I really like the feel of the trail at this point. The next section we are working on will have some crazy switchbacks then a bunch of depressions (small bowls) and some nice hills with some big rocks to play with. The neat thing about this singletrack is I don't know how it is going to end up exactly. I have my eye on some terrain that I want to use but when we get to the southern point, will have to make a decision to head back north or go west and make a really long loop.
Jon taking the berm nicely. Jake has been working 1-2 hours a night then riding it at full speed to see what adjustments need to be made. We will be hitting it hard when we can on the weekends up until the snow flies, getting as far as we can.




Brushcutter turning ironwood sapplings to forest food. Cruising along the trail there are always interesting smell as you distengrate various weeds and what not. Some days you get all stuffed up, some days all droggy and some days wired like on 6 shots of espresso.



Look out Sea Hag....Sawmill Salon has our number. Jens finding out not good idea to try and steal drum sticks away from the Snake.
Jens got signed up for hockey and starts in a few weeks. Jon pumped about that. Jens should be good in the corners.
Lucky is not dead. Proud of his grey hair? It must feel good for him because he does it a lot.
Tom Warner catching Jake and I with Barry. Forgot to mention during the Escape about the feeds. Jon was covering jake and I which was tough since we were riding together. With water or energy options, that meant four bottles to manage each lap. He missed me on one lap but sure enough he sprinted across the parking lot but I hit the bottle and it fell. Nice effort Jon. Once again, Matt Johnson came through, zipping through the course and providing a bottle. Thanks Matt! The DL paper did a nice article about Jake which is now online. I was surprised considering football is king and so many other Fall sports to cover.