Jay Richards

Could not of asked for a better weekend in March. Cold temps froze down the trails making mountain biking possible and the lake set up very nice for ice skating. Sure, would of been nice to have snow on the trails but we are getting our skiing fix in the back bowl/sledding/stxc hill thanks to some snow farming. Last weekend of the winter season at the resort with a small group. Made for a nice wind down of the year. Some sad news though with the passing of our adopted dog for 13 years, Lucky. Lucky was a great dog and lived as good of life as any dog.


Lots of memories with Lucky. Going through old photo albums found lots of pictures of him. Above riding shotgun in the Pisten Bully 6 years ago. One fondest memory is skiing down Suicide Hill full tilt and Lucky just inches in front. He would know exactly where I was and adjust his speed as needed. He knew the woods and trails as good as us and would cut corners on the singletrack and be waiting us at the top of climbs etc.
The day after the Lotvola Cup I pushed all the snow at the bottom of the sledding hill and field and made a jump. Next day there was 3-4" of standing water but the jump was in great shape. The slope leading down barely survived the recent warm spell but, it survived......thanks to a little shoveling of course.
Fired up the green truck on Thursday and that night backed into the few remaining snow piles and loaded it up. Put it in the cathouse for overnight ripening and Friday morning Jake (who had no school along with his brothers) and I shoveled on the slope. The reason why I had it inside over night is so it wouldn't freeze into a chunk of concrete. Since the ground was so soft that afternoon, I didn't want to unload and make a mess on the trails getting over there so I waited until it froze hard Thurs night and could unload. Jonell thought it was nuts and I better post pictures and reasoning so there you go!
Probably would of been okay to leave the slope alone but since we were planning on skiing on it through the weekend with temps near 50 and sunshine, thought best to have some insurance.
Friday stayed cold all day so the kids skated most of the day into the late sunset. Jon's friend Carter was spending the weekend with us and padded up once again and was stoning nicely.
Can't recall skating on the lake this good in late March. We have had some real nice days for skating the past few years.
Jack and Jens skating until dark. Sunday warmth fuzzed up all the ice and now we will have to hope it freezes hard at night and little bit cooler during the day. If not, last weekend was a bonus treat.
Saturday morning temp was flirting with single digits which resulted in rock hard ground and good conditions for mountain biking. Jake and I rode on the Loppet course. The ski trails were blazing fast and the singletrack was in better shape than I expected
The "kamikaze" drop. Look for the new sign. Planning on having more signs made this Spring for landmark purposes.
Creek running down from Bear Pass. Was frozen on top and fun riding down.
Sunday afternoon sun and temps near 50. Would of been nice to ride on the road probably but its still pretty early for us to be pounding big miles with the race season for skiing just wrapping up and bike racing going May until November. Its better to be undertrained than over trained and have fun with what you are doing!! Anyways, the temps loosened up the snow perfect and we spent almost two hours going up and down.
Knees still holding out after 40 years.

Boys playing a little football before grilling and campfire to cap off one to remember.