Jay Richards

Last weekend we thought about going up to the lake cabin but didn't wrap things up until late afternoon with the group and other meetings here at the resort so we stayed at home and enjoyed a rare Saturday evening off. Jonell and I got a ride in and Lars and Jake did some rides, and dirt jumping along with Jack and Jens. Jon was at a hockey tourney. Sunday we took advantage of having Lars here and Jonell and I went up to Fargo for mini-trip. Only gone 24 hours but a very nice little break and a good thing to do. Met with the Wenzels for lunch which was nice.

This week we had our first frost. It wasn't much but still counts. I was thinking about it and counting the day of skiing in May this year, the past year we have had moisture in the frozen state 9 out of 12 months. Awesome. I am totally ready for winter, other than 4-6 weeks of trail work on tap. Had the clutch rebuilt on one of the snowmobiles and picked that up. Beefed up the rear sus as well. Mechanic said "it should pull like a son of a bitch now". Sounds good. I needed a aluminum weld job where the hitch is mounted to this plate thing and he said go down to Waubun steel and see Gooner. I have heard about Gooner before but never met him. I was expecting, well for lack of better words, a goon. But Gooner was just a hard working super nice guy. One of those persons that laughs after every sentence. They had a crew of five working on all kinds of projects. Always fun checking that out. The farmers come up with these ideas to make things work easier. Good stuff.
Jonell and I rode on the Mary Yellowhead road yesterday and Lars and I did some intervals on it today and busted into the deep woods and road some of the quad trail and steep hills for some final tuning for Lars who is doing the Cheq. 40.


Today Jonell snuck back over there with the truck with my mom and cut a bunch of sumac and other bushery. I wasn't paying attention to that. Good thing she is the stoker .She was blending nicely with the local vegetation. She could go bear hunting and the bear wouldn't see her.
Yesterday this guy stopped by to ride and he is doing a trail in every state. Craig Bierly was his name. Interesting fellow. He has a blog he is keeping and will be interesting to follow his travels and tales.
I checked out his rig and pretty much has everything he needs. He was pretty pumped he could shower in the lodge. Reading his posts, sounds like showering is a highlight which is probably a good thing.
Lars has been rollerskiing quite a bit. I haven't rollerskied in probably 15 years. I just can't stand the sound of ski tips digging into ashphalt. Lars is pretty much taking this year off from school and hoping to have a good ski year and catch some attention from college coaches. Kind of like Jr hockey players playing a year of JRS to raise their stock.
We finally found a plastic like puck that works good on the cement on bb court....in the house too but Jonell never happy about that. Funny looking thing. Jon had to get new skates since his blade broke at that one tourney and he grew out of those cracked pair. Worked good last weekend...scored three goals in last game.
Heading to the track.
Lots of track action after supper this week. Jack and Jens built a gap jump out of plywood. Scary looking. Lars used his heart monitor one night and for 40 minutes, he averaged 140bpm. This includes stopping and resting. His max was 180. Good sprint training.
No problems though.
I wonder how many other people were doing a single no hander for Cheq. prep this week. Jonell and I got in as many rides as we could. Not trying to prove anything, just ride hard and have fun and get Jake situated and be there at his start if he needs any last minute stuff. Should be a fun weekend like always. Wrote a preview for skinnyski if you haven't checked that out yet. Good luck to everyone that is racing.