Jay Richards

No shorter of action the past week. MLK long weekend turning out quite nicely which says a lot since the week leading up to it saw a bunch of freeze ups, elements burn out, high limit sensor on hot tub cut out....big list. Always seems to go that way, when it rains, it pours. Big time wind Saturday morning after getting up at 4am to groom required a re-groom Saturday night into Sunday morning. Had to stop and take a 4 hour break then back up Sunday am to finish off the entire trail system. Lots of k's in a 36 hour period. Grooming takes priority over skiing which is all good. In between that, Jake was off to Alex for ski meet, part of three meets in four days, Jack had bb game, and I took Jon up to Fargo for two hockey games. After the weekend games, Jon went over 50 goals for the year with a total of 53 going into next weekends tourney at Bemidji. Can't think of a better town to have a hockey tourney but the way the games are laid out, will probably require multiple trips with Jonell catching ski meet at BV which is convienient and hopefully I can catch the Friday afternoon game.



Jonell and I went to Spidahls today to catch the race. Always enjoying going there and a gorgeous day with the sun glaring nicely. Stopped in Pelcian Rapids for lunch. Pelican + Rapids= Pelican Rapids. The person that thought to put a pelican next to the rapids...brilliant.....I hope they named something after him/her in town because I can't think of any other town I have been to that has something like this. Detroit Lakes has put up these sailboats all over but...

Astrud Gilberto...long grooming shift....can't stop paying attention or else. All the miles I have put on over the years, if I had any speed going, I am sure I would of hit a tree. Always a good workout digging out grooming equipment when this happens. You are never stuck unless someone has to pull you out and like I told Jesse Lalonde at Mt Snow, you are never lost unless someone has to come looking for you and pull you out of the woods.





On a record pace this year. Forest travel this winter has been 95% grooming and 5% skiing. Don't see any racing happening this year.

Jack and Jens having piano recital as well over the weekend. Jen's first recital. Did a great job.
Not as much Pisten Bully action past two weeks. Was nice when colder weather and good for leveling out the bigger drifts the other day. If you stay on top of it, the whole process is easier in the long run.
Coming back from the range two weekends ago, this bird went on a suicidal mission and dove into my grill. Took out the GMC logo and left this big void so I did what a lot of people in MN do and put a piece of cardboard. Jonell didn't like it.
Shawn Hauser dropped me a note about collecting hats so I sent one his way. Never met the guy but anyone that is the first to do that deserves it. He's got something good going over in Green Bay with the Titletown Flyers. Speaking of cycling teams, the kits for the Maplelag/Paramount/Endurance Athlete/skinnyski are being screened this week and should be ready next week. More on that later!



Start of boys classic race at Spidahls today. Jake had a great start and solid race to finish second behind Conrad Roberts. Yesterday at Ripley has to be his best race of the year. After fifth in the classic, he drilled it in the skate race, to move up to second. His skate leg was only 8 seconds slower than Sam Anderson who is currently ranked third in the state. He beat all the Grand Rapids skiers which is one of the top teams in the state. We still skied during the extreme cold last week, being smart, and starting to fine tune the training as the season starts to wind down.