Jay Richards

Tuesday Jake had a race at Spidahl Gard (farm) which is north of Fergus Falls and a little south and east of Pelican Rapids. With things pretty quiet at the lodge during the week, Jonell and I made the short trek take in the action and watch Jake have a nice battle with Matt Lee of Bemidji once again. The drive there is awesome. Rolling terrain with lakes, open fields broken up by clumps of bush(woods) and pretty impressive elevation change from some of the lakes to the high points. Makes you want to take the jibskates out and rip around. Would be awesome crust cruising here in the Spring. Fergus Falls artist and designer of the Maplelag poster, Charlie Beck captures the beauty of this area nicely. Having lived in southern Norway for a year and a half with the half being with Jonell and Jake, the area around Spidhals reminds us where we lived near Hamar.



At the highpoint of Spidahls you can see nicely over the valleys and take in the racing action.

All the times I have been at Spidhahls, it has been sunny adding to the feel of being above treeline like in the Galdhøpiggen area. I know its not the same without the mountains in the background but that's what it reminds me of. Look at that slope though, calling for some turn burnin'!
On the way back we stopped in Pelican Rapids. Small town with some good eats, split by the mighty Pelican River that flows north! Very nice little Mexican store with all good stuff from Mexico. Very clean. No gravel roads I guess like in Sayulita to make things dusty.
Cactus in west central MN middle of January!! Nice!
You know I haven't been out much lately when we get excited about shopping in a Mexican store in a small town but you don't have to go far to have a good adventure I guess and the company was top notch.
River was running good.

Love the pelicano next to the rapids. Brilliant. Fun day. Thanks Jonell.
Yesterday in between running errands in town, I made a quick trip out to the new Mountain View rec area just east of DL. Beautiful day for a ski. The DL ski team is training here and it is really nice. You can see some of the terrain in the picture and hopefully can help develop some of the mountain bike singletrack out here. Right next to the ol' Detroit Mountain. Could have a very fun race linking all these trails together....
The Maplelag/Paramount mountain bike team has added the Oftedahl bros to the team. Very excited about that. Top notch riders and people. Looking forward to a great year with the addition of Eric Thompson.
Huge congrats to Wynn Roberts and making the 2010 Olympic Biathlon team. Wynn raced many times on the Maplelag trails during hs and Lotvola Cup. Fun guy, and a great story coming out of the small town of Battle Lake. He has spent many hours training at Spidahls.
Wynn and Leif Nodgren at West Yellowstone plateau November 08when Bruce and I were skiing back down the road and ran into them.