Jay Richards

Down in the Blaine last weekend. Elite Classic Hockey Tourney at the Schwan rink for Jon who was playing with the north team and Jack had his Destination Imagination competition at Blaine High school as well. Not sure how that worked out to have both functions in the same town but it was nice it did. Nephews Garrett and Reagan were playing as well for different teams, different levels, so we were able to catch some of their games.

We were missing Jake, Ripley and Madeline from Jonell's side of the family.




Jack was part of the DI program during the winter and his team was with the structure division. They had to build a structure under a certain weight and the structure had to hold at least 85 pounds. The competition scheduled for Moorhead was cancelled two weeks back because of weather so they got invited to come down to Blaine for the north metro competition. There were 81 team and 8 doing the structure division. They did a nice presentation and took first and the right to go to state. Well done.
Saturday morning got the open window to go for a birthday ski so I met up with Bruce and Margaret Adelsman to ski at Woodland in Elk River. The reports are always raving from here and I have always wanted to check it out. The morning was perfect with cold temps, fast snow and excellent grooming.

I think there are a dozen volunteers that groom the 12km system. They have made some home made drags and what not and are totally dialed in to grooming. A lot of trail systems have the equipment but what makes Woodland stand out is the timing and approach. From reading the trail reports on skinnyski, Woodland tops them all.

2009 Birkie winner, Matt Liebsch, was working the Gear West demo tent helping out with demos and we skied a half lap with him. Swapping some skis, testing out some new Rossis, Madshus and Fischer boards.

Great ski. Thanks Bruce and Margaret. Check out the Woodland report listing for more photos and reports.
Sunday morning before Jon's last game met up with Bruce again for some crust cruising. We were going to go to Bunker Hills park but the snow was still powdery. Made it to Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park. Found some good spots and some powdery spots. Was just nice to be out on the skis moving around. Beautiful morning and fun to check out the river moving along.
Couple spots were interesting for sure. Reminded me of skiing from Maplelag to Detroit Lakes back in the spring of 2006.

After the early afternoon game, back home in time for a sunset ski with Jake, ripping a hot lap on Skaters Waltz. Snow amazingly powdery and dry for the most part. Has been awesome having such good skiing this late into the year.

Skiing the Gravity box at Woodland. Very similar to some of the hills on North Loup.