Jay Richards

2012-01-26T07:48:00.000-08:00

There are lot of things to blog about the past weekend...with all the goofy stuff, a storm was certain to roll in. And, as forecasted, a nice shot of snow resulting in 4" with some lingering flurries and incredible frost on the tail to take the skiing to the next level.

JO racing resumed last weekend with racing at Theo Wirth on the man made snow. Jake had a great race on Saturday in the classic as Bruce Adelsman of skinnyski, captured above, posting a solid result. I am still trying to figure the exact placings as they had SR skiers mixed in with the JO results. Sunday was the skate race and not feeling as punchy as the day before before but still a solid showing. The last two races on tap this weekend, ready to make it count!

In the mix of weekend hockey games and everything else, piano recital for Jens and Jack. Grandma Mary photo.

With snow falling Sunday, grooming resumed full force Sunday and all day Monday with high school race on Tuesday and getting the other trails set for recreational skiing. With limited snowfall this year, each inch that fell was packed on the key trails in effort to get the most out of the snow. Lee holding stick he uses to chase timber wolves off the trail. People comment it would be nice to get a 8" snowfall but sometimes you can get more mileage out of less snow managing it proper versus waiting til a 8" dry dump has stopped and a lot of it gets pushed to the sides.
Mark Morrissey and his family visting for a few days and took a hour break to ski in the fresh snow with Mark. Mark and Monica lived one year while we were in Essex working at the Izaak Walton Inn and good to catch up reliving the crazy stories in the soap town of Essex. The year Mark was there it rained at least one day out of the week the entire year. That might sound for bad skiing but when you live in the Pacific NW, it is part of the weather and rain is good for settling the snow pack. Mark and I did a few backcountry trips with the most memorable being a hike to the top of Spot Mountain along the continental divide in East Glacier area, and tele skiing down on wind swept slopes that had been subject to wind speeds highest ever recorded off the divide. It was probably the sketchiest skiing I have ever done.
Ski race on Tuesday, Bemidji Pursuits. A few of the Finnlandia crew down to help with timing and starting and fun working with these folks. Mark Walters, head coach at Bemidji always does a great job. Nice having background music in the start finish area.
Hockey players in the Richards family alarmed seeing skiers in the snipers edge room. Each team uses a room to change, hang out etc. in between racing and skiing. More space once everyone cleared out, all good.
Team mates Riley Nelsen and Zean Baker battling it out for the win as Zean overcame 500 meters to go to take the win. It's a lot of work setting up for the races but fun having the positive environment of hs ski racing in your back yard and the enthusiasm of the kids.

Jake did not race, instead skiing around with me. Tuesday I kept track of the time on the boards and # of km skied. Zipping around taking pictures, moving course tap for the five different courses and smoothing out snow on the corners etc and make sure things were flowing along resulted in about 5 hours clicked in and around 35km.
One of the things that happened you don't want to happen as a weekend starts is a break in the water line around the well. Since the well crew can't dig before locaters come out to mark lines, not able to fix the problem which was a hole in the pitless. Like I said before, no big deal to Elsner. Fixed middle this week before too large of a new ice rink was formed and all good.

Warmer temps and softer conditions, I keep Carlos off the trails as much as possible. Good reason to head up to the Sugarbush forest road for the first time with the fat bike. Riding on the singletrack is hard. But the forest road with more gradual hills, previous packing by snowmobile/atv with fresh snow made for ideal conditions for the fat bike. I didn't get all the way down but riding the downhills with no worries definitely a huge advantage over the ht and no way could ride those conditions without the big wheels. Would be good to incorporate this road in to a race and still trying to figure out a course and date for March.

Frosty tunnel on North Loup Tuesday. Welcome winter!

2012-01-18T21:16:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Jon and his team were in Hibbing for the 12 team Bantam A tourney.

They started out with a win which is always good and ended up winning the next two games, allowing only 2 goals and winning the pool winner tie breaker allowing the least amount of goals. I caught the Saturday games after the morning groom and the second one was probably the best game I have seen them play all year. Great hockey. Played with heart and passion. The automatic bid to the championship game was on the line, and they stepped up to the plate and delivered. I don't like to single out individual accomplishments in a team sport but Jon had a nice weekend with a hat trick in the Sat evening game en route to 10 points on the weekend.

The played Hopkins in the championship game and lost, probably in a emotional low from being "up" from the day before. Still, a solid weekend earning the second place.

In between games I snuck over to Giants Ridge to check out the Silver trail which is the skate course for the state meet. I have high expectations for the Ridge with the events they put on and was disappointed to see 3" of fresh snow not groomed. I hate to be critical and negative but with the low snow year in the Midwest, it pretty much burned me not to see this snow packed out. Don't get me wrong, it was great to be skiing in fresh powder and the opportunity to do so but concern of hosting a state meet 3 weeks ago was not evident, imo.

Overall the coverage was good and the skiing was great and skiing under the lights was a blast.

Warroad and other towns claim to be the hockey town of USA but I would put Hibbing up there as well. There is so much history in the area with hockey, the mining, Bob Dylan, Kevin McHale, there really isn't a town like Hibbing in the state. The memorial arena is a classic. I made a too long of a video capturing a touch of the local flavor.

(skoyles photo)
Monday I made the trip back east to catch the action at MT Itasca for the Little Falls invite. I have never been to the LF Invite which is normally held at Ripley but wanted to check it out this year since it was Jake's SR year. Unfortunately, they weren't able to have it at Ripley. Jake won the classic and put 12 more seconds on in the pursuit to take the overall win. Mt Itasca is a great place to watch and during the skate race I was able to ski next to Jake and watch maybe 70% of the race.

For Christmas, Jonell and the boys delivered a Mukluk fat bike. The fat bike is becoming super popular and I had my doubts. I have done a lot of snow riding with the 26 hardtail and looking at some of the conditions people are riding with fat bikes, I asked myself "why"? I have been riding at least once a week on Twin Lakes singletrack and this week it was much better with a line to follow. It is amazing what the bike can ride through and can ride much more than I imagined. The ski and snowshoe trails are perfect but I am staying off. I feel snow is meant to ski on and singletrack is meant to bike on and if there is a bike that can handle it in winter mode, all good. I am hoping to have a fat bike race either late February or early to mid March. Thinking of a course, it would probably start on the lake, go through a marsh area, little bit of ski trail, bushwhacking through the woods and finish up on some singltrack. Dates and time to be posted, hopefully, soon.

2012-01-12T14:13:00.000-08:00

The ski season is in full swing. The winter has not brought a lot of the white stuff but somehow we are making it work with only 6-7" of total snowfall for the season. The warm days have transitioned the snow to a granular state which allows for a higher melting point during the spikes in temps. The low angle of the sun, short days and glazing of the trails at dusk with falling temps is keeping the snow on the trails. Another key factor is the frost is deep in the ground and with the thin base, the base keeps refrigerated from the cold temps below, much like ice in hockey arenas that can have ice even in the hottest days of summer.

Last weekend we had the Rochester team come up for a ski camp. The team is 140 members strong which is amazing. There were just over 130 here with coaches and chaperones. That is more ski club members than FM/DL/FF etc. combined! The coaches and leaders doing a fantastic job keeping kids interested and motivated. Their trip to Maplelag was the first time on snow.

Early December I needed some snow to help fill in some low spots on the rink in our back yard but we had none so I loaded up snow from behind the arena to make slush and fill in. Since than, I have been loading up pickup loads to fill on thin and bare spots at the start area exposed to the sun and wind and also on Kamikaze hill on the skaters waltz trail. A couple nights, Jon and one of his team mates, Cooper, helped unload. Having Kamikaze covered, we could ski the full loop.

Jeff Robertson is one of the directors of the MNMBS and helps out as a coach with the Rochester team.
Getting a fresh load from the boni. The snow that hasn't been sitting as long is easier to shovel. The comments of people passing by have been good. Making snow men, building up for fish houses, snow ball fight, beer cooler..yep, sure.

With lack of snow causing most races to move to Mt Itasca, decided it was time to do the DL Invite. Once we set the date, went to work building up the thin areas in anticipation of the mid 40's the day before the race. Instead of hauling more loads, I got a hold of a excavator guy I knew. He had a 40 yard box and stopped by the arena and filled it up and dumped it at the trail head.
I spread some of it near the trail head and than used the remaining to cover a long section that was thin on Skaters Waltz. I loaded in to the pick up than drove out to the section via some other trails and the REA line.

Also had some help from Lars and Jack Ellefson who skied along skaters, covering dark spots.
When I started sliding I saw the writing on the wall. There was nothing I could do to pull back and prevent the bucket from hitting the rear window. It wasn't snow. I knew to be aware of that, and filled in middle but the wet ice provided no traction.
Steve and this years foreign staff members helping spread on a thin area from a pick up load.

Ended up covering this sun exposed hill all way around the corner. Temp started dropping Monday afternoon earlier than expected so got out to groom it out right away before it set up like cement and do final grooming touch ups and all systems go for Tuesdays race.

I was committed to do everything possible to pull off the DL Invite for Jake's Sr year. The morning of the race I skied the 5km doing touch up work with the shovel and by race time, everything was full covered. After living in Essex, MT in Glacier Park where 425 inches fell the last year we lived there, I learned to appreciate the shovel and the health benefits. I will never own a snowblower for as long as I live. Video recap of the race above.

Jr High race was on the lake which worked out great and was nice the older skiers came down and cheered them on. We closed the trails after the girls Varsity/JV race so the trails wouldn't get skied out. There is no sport like Nordic. Brainerd kids checking out a beaver lodge.

Buses and Maplelag aren't the best mix but it works and always something interesting that happens.
Current snow depth map on Jan. 6.
Look at the topo of MN and interesting comparisons between elevation and snow. We are located in the dark brown, just below the blue (probably Strawberry mountain) in wnw part of state.
Wednesday the temp dropped 47 degrees. Snow froze down hard and base is bomb proof. Lars getting some hill work in.

2012-01-03T18:44:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. This has to be one of the most memorable Holiday seasons. (No, I am not doing a electronic Christmas card. Maybe by Valentines day the Christmas card will go out. Just having a hard time picking which pictures I want to use of the dogs and cat).

The time before, during and after Christmas/New Years is the busiest of the year at the resort and other activities. Time flies by and now we are in January. With the lack of snow in December, it seems like we went from a long November to January. The only thing making it like January is have the ground white and the trails skiable and temps in single digits. But today felt like March..which means February will be cold and snowy?!?!

This is the first Christmas eve and definitely latest I have ever mountain biked in December on the mtb singletrack at Maplelag. Jake and I rode the twin lakes singletrack Christmas eve and the riding was really fun even with a couple of inches on the ground. Plenty of traction and fast rolling.

Suicide hill was hanging on to snow and a quick ski Christmas eve to check the skier traffic. Not often you can do both.

Over to Park Rapids for church and family fun. Pretty lucky Santa still swings on by.

Triple crock pot action.

Anything edible with bacon wrapped around it.

Took 13 years to knock off the first two bottles of aquavit, now on to the third. Always helps when more family is present. Hard to describe to feeling in the stomach when potato alcohol mixes with lutefisk, the above and everything else.

All good when club soda is chilling on the deck. Not sure who invented it, but amazing. Good way to cap the evening. The best thing is you can make it at home now.

Ski meets and hockey games keeping the wheels moving on the Yukon across nw MN during the Holidays. Jens and I caught one of the meets at Mt Itasca which has hosted all the meets this year. The snow is fast and 33 degrees and sunny doesn't get much better.

Having to cancel the ski camps and all the ski teams canceling after Christmas was a major bummer but as we moved closer to new years, the occupancy went up and folks came even if the skiing was marginal at best. Lake skiing added to the activities and was a different but fun time frame. We had two guests from D.C., Claudia and Holly who came with attitudes that are priceless and motivated a lot of people. Super positive and making the most of the situation doing everything they could.

Set up the two Salsa so they could do some snow biking for the first time. Very fortunate to have guests such as them.

Three days of snow blanketed the trails to end the month and grooming back in action. Great to have Lee back again as he really dialed it in the end of the year and between the two of us, can knock out the entire 60k plus in 4-5 hrs.

Put the dark house out and tried the luck at spearing. We don't have the patience to sit it out like we should but some guests did spear a few northerns. Hope to get out there during the week this winter.

After a lot of late nights working on the rink, finally got it going just when the snow came shutting down the lake skating. Jon had a bunch of hockey buddies over for New Years and seeing them goof around is as good as it gets and worth all the cold hands and frozen parts. Even had the goalie which is awesome.

Good times on New Years eve and some good stories adding to the memorable Holiday season. 1:30am swing by the warming house to stoke the fire and shut off lights but someone other than Carlos enjoying the chair! Cheers!

2011-12-21T18:53:00.000-08:00

Monday Jonell and I celebrated 19 great years of marriage.

One of the highlights of the year was the vacation to Fort Ransom One of many excellent adventures the past 21 years.

Tuesday we were scheduled to have the Detroit Lakes Invitational ski meet. Due to lack of snow, it was cancelled and hopefully we can have it in January some time. Ely was not able to host their invitational ski meet so they had their invite at Mt Itasca just outside Grand Rapids in the town of Coleraine and kindly invited the Section 8 teams. There were 13 teams including powerhouse Duluth East which is the number one ranked team in the state, boys and girls.

I have skied at Mt Itasca a few times before. There is around a 2 foot base of snow thanks to snow making and the trails are groomed perfectly with a PB200. There was about 2.5km of trail open and the course for the race was excellent with a nice balance of hills, flats and fast downhills. It is a great venue for spectating and I was able to watch about 70% of the race and catch some good video. There are also some ski jumps, a tubing hill and a few downhill runs with terrain park features. It would be an ideal place for a Nordic cross race but most racer types get wired skiing anything outside the above photo so it probably wouldn't work. Europe more likely and they do have some competetions.

Bumped in to Scott Kylander-Johnson who is one of the coaches at Duluth Marshal. Good to catch up.
Blasting away. Some serious snow making around the clock for the last 3-4 weeks.

It was a gorgeous day to be on snow and had a blast zipping around, catching the action. I talked to a number of coaches and like I told Bruce A, it was like people came from a funeral, where at a wedding and going back to a funeral. Snow needs to come soon!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-18T23:04:00.000-08:00

Action packed weekend.
We had one ski team come up this past weekend, St Paul Highland Park, despite very little snow on the trails. The only skiing options were on the lake and Suicide hill. Brad Moening, the head coach did a great job keeping the kids motivated and mixing up the activities including trail running on the twin lakes mtb singletrack. The kids were great, no complaints and helped out in the kitchen etc. just because they wanted to. I really look forward to the ski camps with the high energy and enthusiasm of 250 kids. Also was looking forward to having Ben Popp, Dave and Josie Nelson, Kris and Kyia Anderson and Eve Stein coming to help but had to pull the plug.

Christmas program at church Sunday morning.With Jens down in the cities, Jack represents. Did a very nice job reading and pastor Jim always delivering a good message.
Jake and Jonell at Wausau for sprint races and race #2 in the JOQ series. Jake had a fantastic day on Saturday, making it to the B finals and 3rd overall OJ. Its difficult to explain to a non skier the format and qualifying but basically skied fast and to be on the podium with Bratrud and Saxton is solid.
Jon had a tourney in Fergus Falls. After church program, caught the championship game vs FF and they took the win and first place trophy. Haven't seen all the games this year but the ones I have, this was one of the best, I thought.
There are tons of geese in Fergus Falls, enjoying the open water. I haven't seen this many geese in one spot since last trip to Sask, CAN.
Celebrating #9 for Jens last week. Jesus birthday next week. Stir some power and
Let it snow!

2011-12-14T21:43:00.000-08:00

Jens turned 9 today. Time is flying by.

The year Jens was born, the weather was pretty much the same like it was today. Damp, and little if any snow.

Jens has in house hockey Wed night so we all went out before he played. This years foreign staff has trickled in via train and plane the past few days and joined us. Probably the hardest letter in the alphabet for S Americans to pronounce is the letter J. With Yeah, Yens, Yack, Yim, Yess, Yake, Yon, and Yonell...good times trying to know everyone's name. The boys, Adrian and Jorlius (George) are from Peru and Natalia is from Brazil. Should be a fun winter.

I didn't think December 14th would be one of the best mountain bike rides of the year. The ground is frozen, the mist was freezing on contact making the surface conditions like sandstone/slickrock. I blew out Twin Lakes and the lakeside singletrack late October thinking it would be good for a few weeks before the snow starting flying. Instead, sneaking in a few rides a week. The track is the best condition it has ever been in going in to the winter. With no moisture to speak of the last three months, the surface has remained fast, smooth and hard. Usually the surface once the ground freezes is like captain crunch.

Good sight lines in the woods.

I have been very pleased with the performance of the tubular. I have been using them all summer and fall and a great compliment to the best bike possible, 26 hardtail. You can run super low pressure making the ride feel like a soft tail. Cornering, railing the berms and traction in all conditions has been excellent with the Geax Saguaro.
No, not coffee beans spilled in the woods. The only spot in the woods I have seen deer poop. Pretty much have covered most of the trail system some shape or form the past three months and have seen nothing.
Only until the leaves come down do you notice the wasp nests.

Despite the mild and wet weather this week, we still have some skiable sections, taking advantadge what we are dealt.

The sign pretty much sums up the weather this fall. This poster board sign waving the flag for garage sale action on the goat ranch, still laying on the ground mid December, hasn't really changed much since October 1. Should be buried in snow. Snow was falling this evening so at least the ground is white again and hopefully we are skiing again soon!

2011-12-10T16:55:00.000-08:00

With the planned ski camp for the weekend at Maplelag canceled, I was able to take Jake to Ironwood for the opening races in the JR Olympic qualifying series at Wolverine this past weekend.

We arrived in good time Friday to ski the full 10km course, hooking up with Steve Gromatka. It was good to be on continuous snow again after logging the k's here at Maplelag on the lake and up and down around Suicide hill. The course was a bit bumpy due to frost heaving and low snow conditions but the snow was fast and beautiful skiing. The groomers/volunteers did a great job working the snow they had and you could see on the side of the trail, they did a lot of shoveling. They even spray painted the rocks and roots for the racers! Nice job to them.

Saturday was the 10km skate race. Jake had a fantastic start to the season with a 8th place finish in the OJ division. I raced in the open/citizen, more or less skiing hard and had a good time. It was a great course with long climbs, technical and fast. Not sure if Lyme or getting older has done it but the high end sensations are harder to find. Whatever, just happy to be back out there skiing fast (for me) through the woods. Six weeks ago when I got James Harrisoned or Cincanattied (take your pick) by that shepherd hook, I didn't even know if would be able to ski for a while. Have to keep heads up, and keep the wheels moving.

Kris and Kyia Anderson were in Ironwood for demo days at ABR and flying by everyone pulling Aunders in the chariot on the trails there. Kindly invited us over to lunch at their place. It was very nice to walk in to a hot meal and great conversation on skiing and biking. There are no shortage of topics as K2A2 have been around the world biking and skiing. Their beautiful baby Aunders is growing up fast and good to seem him squirming around. Kris and I were talking some old school tele, knee pads, leather and pins. If you want to learn how to to tele, ask Kris and he will teach you proper starting out on the old stuff instead of the high end Paul Bunyan Big Foot plastic boots and parabolic boards. Hopefully we can burn some turns together in the future.

Sunday was the 10km classic. The temp was much warmer and the snow was starting to break down a bit, causing skiers to question if the track or outside of the track was faster skiing. Also made for a little bit trickier waxing but nothing the wax people couldn't stay on top of. All good stuff in the excitement and unknowns of ski racing. Jake didn't have as good of placing as Saturday but still a great result capping off a solid start to the season. For not having any tracks to ski in this early season, more or less boondocking with the crowners, a nice race by JR4.

Jake cranking it hard at the finish in the classic. Jake's placing wasn't as high as Saturday but a solid result and great start to the season. Skiing the warm up with Jake and Steve I was thinking it would of been fun to race again but was fun to watch the top dogs and catch the action.

Matt Liebsch left no question mark as the big shooter in the Midwest, taking both the classic and freestyle events in convincing fashion. The racing was interval starts so it was skier vs the clock but Matt was skiing like he was in a sprint finish. After seeing him at the finish, I have to say I haven't seen anyone put forth an effort like Matt. He is an absolute animal, skiing with passion and desire. Wish him all the best as he tries to make a coveted spot on the National team for the next winter Olympics.

Kyle Bratrud, freshly removed out of high school at Eden Prairie and now skiing at Northern Michigan, put in some very solid results including a top five finish in the classical. I got to know Kyle a little bit from the years he was here with EP for training camps. Super nice kid and the collapse at the finish line is legit with the effort he put forward.

We pretty much bolted straight home, with just five minute stop for fast food in Superior and made it back to catch most of Jon's late afternoon game on Sunday. They were playing Walker which is on A schedule because of the VFW status. It was a total blowout in DL favor and games like this are not fun to watch, for both sides, imo. Walker and Park Rapids can't come to terms to merge at the youth level and the kids and other teams in the district feel it without going in to more detail. All part of the hockey drama politic world which you can't let get consuming.

Full moon Sunday night and clear skies made for some great lake skating to top off a fun weekend, glad I was able to go.

2011-12-06T16:32:00.000-08:00

Last week Jonell decorated the lodge for Christmas. Driving home from a hockey game the Sunday before, she formulated a plan in her mind and last week did an amazing job covering a large area getting ready for the coming guests. She was definitely on a mission and like most projects, likes to do them solo and does the work of five. Unfortunately we have had to cancel two weekends now because of lack of snow. We were fortunate to have that snow mid November but overall, it has been one of the driest falls on record. Just a few patches remain throughout the trail system that has been enough for Jake and I to get some desperate skiing in.

Data on probability of white Christmas

Jon had his first tourney of the season in Bemidji last weekend. The team went 2-2 with the last two games wins. There were a lot of kids Jon has played with in the summer there with different teams including a cdn team from Fort and it was fun catching up with those parents. Sunday night when we were all home, we were out on the lake for some dusk to moonlight hockey.

Patches of snow on Twin lakes. Jake skied 1.5hrs going up and down the start. I managed an hour the other day. It is desperate skiing for sure but better than not skiing and have to keep winter running through the veins. Suicide and the sections on the back side are a bit more tolerable and fun in a different sense.

Pushing snow to the middle to make for better classic skiing on the lake which opened up two ice skate lanes that Jon has challenged me to a race. Full moon, clear night, its on.

2011-12-01T22:42:00.000-08:00

We have had ice on the lake for close to two weeks but with a few warm days we stayed off. Last few nights it has dropped down in single digits and a solid 3-4" of good ice and we finally got out for some skating.

There is just a light dusting of snow on top but for the most part some nice skating on pretty smooth ice. Always fun to get some skating in before the lake is snow covered or top water sets in.

Wednesday Jake and I went to Duluth to have a tour of St Scholastica. On the way over we stopped at Shingobee, which is just west of Walker, for a run. I have skied and biked here many times and one of the hilliest trail systems in Minnesota. Never have been there with Jake. The skiing is very tight and technical and you have to be on your toes. Hope to get back there this winter.
If you are looking for a good place to do a hill workout, this is the place.
The main hill sees big time sledding action in the winter and has to be one of the best places to sled in the state. I am sure top speeds get close to 5omph and has issued a few trips to the local ER.

2011-11-27T17:40:00.000-08:00

Another great Thanksgiving with family and friends. Nice to have the last minute additions to spend the day with us.

It looked like a lot of people but outside of the meal, really didn't seem like that many people spread out everywhere.

Lutefisk making an appearance.
Plenty of gravy.
Thanksgiving football. Think there were 18 kids in the action. Shorts and a few shirts coming off.

Watching from the deck. Pretty incredible weather for Thanksgiving.

Shinny hockey in the basement.
Sting pong.
Skied all Thanksgiving break, up until Sunday. Fun spring like conditions and always thankful for Thanksgiving skiing.
Bummer it got so warm, pretty much wiping out most of the base. It was a great start. Now back to square one.

One of the early Norwegian students who worked at Maplelag in 1982-83, came with her family. Anne-Berit went on to Alaska to ski, becoming all American two years and this Fall was one of only two skiers to be inducted to their hall of fame. Now married to husband Tao who was National track and field champion in the 100 meters in Turkey. They have two kids, living in Snowqualmie WA. Fun to see them and catch up and reminisce about her time at Maplelag.

2011-11-22T06:26:00.000-08:00

We missed out on the narrow band of snow that sliced through MN, WI and the UP on Saturday. Friday night the wind was northwest and dry which pretty much indicated we were going to steer the low from moving north which would of increased our snow chances if it did track more north. If the wind would of been southeast the night before, I would of been more optimistic. The cold weather did freeze out the lake and set the ground up which is a good start. Thankfully we had the snow earlier in the week to provide nice skiing on the weekend.

The transitional time of seasons always provides some nice frost action.

The lake froze over in three stages this year so some areas are solid with 3" of ice and able to walk on. We have been making a little ice on the lake and should be able to skate soon.

The skiing has been amazing, really, considering there isn't much snow. The trails we have packed out and skiing on mowed multiple times during the summer and fall. The grass isn't much over 2" long which makes skiing possible in minimal snow. There were only a few skiers to come out and check out the early snow. I think with not much snow in the urban areas around here, people think it is not possible. It is a treat having a bit more time to log in some k's before it gets real crazy around here. November skiing is much like March, its hard to describe but the sun angles and generally mild temps are two reasons.
Jake was up at Paramount Sports on Saturday for part of the afternoon, waving the flag after knocking out 20 clicks in the am. The Prairie Edge Nordic skiers helped organize a ski expo. The turnout was a bit light but nice job to those that organized in effort to spread the word on Nord.

Jon is playing Bantam A this year. The team is off to a great start with four wins in as many attempts. Big win over Brainerd on the weekend and another solid win on Sunday over Little Falls. Skill wise the team might not match up with some of the better teams but the team skates hard, hustles and a good group of kids. Match that with great parents, coaches it is going to be a solid year. They are fun to watch. Big test Thanksgiving weekend with East Grand, Moorhead and Alexandria. We have been with the same group of parents for 5-6 years and seems just like yesterday these kids were Jens age, zipping and falling around tearing it up.
Like I have said in years past, if you don't have any plans for Thanksgiving, we have plenty of room and welcome to stop by. You don't need to bring anything other than snow! Have a great one!

2011-11-18T08:10:00.000-08:00

Winter made a visit the start of the week and doing everything possible, well almost everything, to make sure it feels welcome and stays around. Possible storm this weekend might or might not leave more white. Sunday morning will bear.

The dustings off and on Mon, Tues and Wed were enough to get the skis out and do some skiing. Also a little roll packing which is always super exciting for me. The main intent was to pack out Suicide Hill as it has the best coverage, as usual.
Night ski with Jake in fresh snow.
Skiing with Jens at dusk on Suicide. For just a few inches of snow, pretty nice skiing and a good fix until it comes for real.
The lake froze over yesterday morning with temps in the single digits. But opened up again in the middle of the lake, last night, from wind. Ideally it makes some good ice before the snow lands on it. Past couple years we have had some great lake skating and always a special treat when that happens.
When Jonell and Jake were visiting MSU, they picked up a indo board in Bozeman. The boys have been putting it to good use. Jack practicing above. Made a comment to Jens last night skiing how he was doing a good job keeping upright skiing at dark on thin snow, he said it was from the indo board practice.

2011-11-14T17:05:00.001-08:00

On any given weekend, it is normal for the boys to have friends over. This past weekend each boy had a friend over. Makes for some serious testosterone running around in the house but like Jonell says, wouldn't have it any other way and what it is all about having kids and plenty of good times and laughs.

And they are always helpful when we ask for help at the lodge.

Jon and Dahlen warming up before Sunday's hockey game. Clearing out the dining room so Jonell and the gals can poly this week.

It has been a most dry Fall. Not unusually warm but one of the driest on record. We are getting deep into November and now the desire for snow is getting more serious. Talk of the first real storm of the year for this coming weekend is hitting the waves. I keep tabs on the weather daily year round but starting November, the scan of various websites becomes more frequent. Two of the places I keep tabs on, West Yellowstone and our old stomping grounds, Essex, MT. have been getting some good snow and the forecasts look favorable the next week for snow. The weather patterns in these places is indicative of weather we might get 7-10 days out, from my experience keeping track. Not the exact same with snow totals generally being higher in MT but cold and precip similar. Alaska is also another state I keep an eye one. Mainly when they are experiencing severe cold weather and usually we can expect that 2 weeks later.

John Dee fires up his forecasts in November and you can always count on John to have a carrot dangle for snow lovers 7-10 days out. He has a text forecast and graphic forecast (below) and I always look at the graphic first to get excited than read the text to see why.

Intellicast is a nice site for looking at surface forecast models. Again, from 12 years of keeping a hasty track, they seem to be pretty accurate on the location of snow and the size of a system etc. 1-3 days out after a forecast is posted. A forecast might say 40% and the models will show where, like the one above for tomorrow, the possible tracking and where it might snow or rain.

Founder and CEO of Broadcast Weather, Paul Douglas provides forecasts for StarTrib and has a bunch of weather info on his blog and one of many meteorologists who keeps global warming at the for front. I do wish he would touch base to NW MN as he keeps pretty metro, central MN and north shore focused. Today, for example, it was snowing and lower 30's despite warmer temps in the above places.

Joe Bastardi, guy is a riot, he also keeps global warming on the forefront but provides statistics and information that shows the earth is cooling. He probably is the most interesting person to follow on twitter. His views on global warming in clip above and below (not sure why embedding twice).

Probably the most level headed forecasters are at WDAY in Fargo, John Wheeler and Daryl Ritchinson. The two meteorologists have a blog that have simple, easy to read, weather related events and information and ground a lot of the weather rumors out there. There is a great post about "green" cars you should check out for sure.

Weather Underground has a nice mobile app with a scientific discusssion that explains things nicely.

Bottom line, weather is extremely fascinating and the information available a person could waste a lot of time. The above links are areas I have narrowed on to and can spend 15 minutes getting an idea and help decide actions for grooming and the day activtities instead of listening someone give their personal opinion on cold and snow instead of simple facts. My favorite course in college was weather and climate. The avalanche training I did in Montana was super interesting learning snow science and understanding weather and how it affects snow pack and avalanche conditions. I am cautious to put much belief in some of the global warming information provided because there isn't record keeping that goes back far enough. Comparing weather events the last ten years to 150 years ago is really nothing when you can't compare 500 years ago the earth could of been much warmer or cooler. That's not to say we shouldn't respect the environment though. Many people who lived in the late 60's and 70's remember winters, in particular, November, being very cold and snowy and will say "not like it used to be" but you have to keep in mind that the late 60's and 70's were below "normal" and maybe not accurate to compare to. A person could discuss this and argue both sides on and on.

Think Snow!

2011-11-10T11:41:00.000-08:00

This morning we woke up to winter. Just a few inches but always nice to see white the first time this year. It was a bit unexpected as not forecasted. Probably most meteorologists have no clue it snowed around here. Made for challenging driving Richwood to Maplelag. The first snows, to me, are always the most interesting to drive on with the ground/roads not being frozen and generate the least exposure so people aren't always ready for it.

Winter sports are starting to crank up with Jon and Jens busy with hockey. Jon made the Bantam A team and Jens is still playing "Mites". Pretty much a daily trip to town. Jon has late practice and has to be their early so I usually sneak a rollerski or mtb ride in before catching the end of practice.

We didn't have ice til a bit later this fall so the boys practiced shooting in one of the rooms in the basement of the lodge that had a "snipers edge" hanging from the ceiling.
Jens was the only one to dress up for Halloween and went all out with the girl costume. It was a riot.
Peter logged his last day of the season, taking advantage of the dry fall and getting a early jump on leaf removal. No one has even come close to Peter and leaf raking.
Most of the summer Peter spent weed whacking 4-5 hours a day. Peter is down in Florida now, will be there until mid April I imagine, walking the beaches telling people about Jesus.

Last week I finally made it up to Waubun barbershop for the first time for a haircut. Max, 82, has the shop there. With the profession he is in, Max knows pretty much everyone in these parts and where they live. He pretty much cuts hair now because he loves to do it. He is an avid outdoorsman and had some good duck hunting stories to share. Probably the most interesting comment he had was how the trumpeter swans are scaring a lot of ducks away. "They rule the lakes and hog the feed so other waterfowl can't come in" Hadn't heard that before and would make sense to me seeing how many trumpeter swans we have in the area and so little ducks.
Sneaking in a few fall projects before the snow flies. There hasn't seem like much down time this year.
Deer hunting is capping the peak of hunting this season but we haven't been out much. I walked the trails one morning this week and Jens and I sat out for a hour at dusk. Pretty quiet in the woods. The word from the woods is there are no deer because of wolves. I have seen wolf scat on the trails and very little if any deer droppings. Supposedly the drop a load 13 times a day so with those odds, you think you would see something. Another tidbit floating around is deer ticks and lyme disease are so bad now because turkeys have increased in population and visiting the area more frequently. The kids have been shooting a few squirrels and last weekend cooked up three and ate them. Tastes just like pork Jack said.

Few more outings of duck hunting. Jon and couple of his hockey buddies went out all day, not much luck but nice to see them out in the woods enjoying nature and learning.

2011-10-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

This week I made a trip to Two Inlets to pick up some lumber at the mill there. We had cut the logs from our property and had them sawed to rough cut boards by Richard Jensens' near Rochert. Jensen recently retired from sawing but couldn't handle retirement so has been cutting small jobs "for fun". Once the rough cut boards dried, my dad took them to Two Inlets to have planed. We will use the smooth oak, maple, birch and poplar boards for shelving and trim.

Growing up, there were a lot of trips to Two Inlets. Most of the lumber and timber in the original came from the Maplelag woods. Some of the tongue and groove and rough cut timbers in the new lodge from the woods by selective harvest and not enough board feet to cover all the walls.

My dad had an old International truck he used for his blasting days and also was good for hauling good size loads. While the yard was loading the truck, I would play in the sawdust piles. Learned not to play with shorts and no shirt on a hot and humid day.

Stacks drying out.

2011-10-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

Weekend capped off a great MEA break. It was the first weekend with no guests at the resort since early May.

Had an opening to sneak up to Fargo to check a Force game, (USHL hockey). Mainly wanted to watch former DL player Tanner Lane.

Friday up to the lake cabin to help take in the dock. Couldn't ask for a nicer day for late October considering it could be 34 degrees rain/snow/wind this time of year.

Saturday was Jonell's 40th birthday. Maplelag's chef Deb stopped over in the morning. Had to take a picture of Jonell and Deb having coffee Saturday morning because there are maybe 2 or 3 Saturdays out of the year this might happen.

Jonell was adamant not to have a big party, did that at 30, and her choice was to go to Itasca State Park for biking, blading and roller skiing to the headwaters from the main entrance. Again, couldn't of been a nicer day. Between the six of us, we probably have been to the park 50 times but never together as a family. Got a few stares walking around in ski boots.
Jens ready for snow.
Picnic lunch time. As expected, it was pretty quiet but still good to see a handful of folks enjoy one of the most beautiful parks in MN.

Going down we stayed on the bike path but was a little rough. Came back on the main park rd and was one of the best surfaces I have roller skied on. The last 5 times I have been in the park has been in the winter and the road is usually covered nicely with ice and snow. Now I know why Lars Ellefson does most of his roller skiing here. Hoping to get back to interval that big long hill.

Birthday dinner. Entertainment during, free like always. Couldn't of been a better day.
Sunday morning we went out duck hunting before church and pleasantly surprised to have some action with a loner coming in textbook. Pretty sad to get excited about one duck come in to the decoys perfectly but for reasons I won't get in to, duck hunting just isn't the same. Growing up, MEA always was considered the time to go duck hunting. Back in the 80's, cousins, uncles and their friends would come up and we would have 10-15 people hunting ducks around the Island at Island lake and maybe a group at the pass on Twin Lakes. There were would be times the skies were black with ducks and a absolute hoot. Afternoons spent grousing the woods and if weather was right, back out for a evening shoot. My cousin and his friends were playing hockey, but even then, playing at Edina, they had the time off. Anyways, kids got tired I am sure hearing of stories past.
The kids had a good time in the morning, wanted to go out late Sunday afternoon. The little weather we had in the morning pushed through so conditions were a little tranquil for ducks but was still great to be out in nature for the beautiful sunset and observe two deer swimming from the island back to main land. I have never seen this before but know they do it if pushed by something. Wolves?

2011-10-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

This week was MEA. Kids had Wed, Thurs and Fri off. Jonell, Jake and Jess went to Montana state for a tour and I took the other three boys and two dogs up to I Falls for a few days to visit my sister and her four boys.
Lily and Carlos on first road trip. Traveled pretty good actually.

Cousins had school on Wednesday so we spent most of the day in Voyageurs National Park hiking around and rollerblading on the quiet roads. Beautiful park and only 10 miles away from the Falls.
Bladejoring.

The Tilson Creek ski trails run through Voyageurs.
Border patrol got word a pug like dog was in town so came by to make sure there would be no border crossing. We did go across though with the dogs not after getting pulled over for id check as it was suspicious I guess mom wasn't along and my black eye raises red flag!?!?
Stopped by the Fort Frances arena to check it out. The JR A team, "Lakers" were practicing. Didn't know the team existed.
Downtown Fort Frances.

I honestly did not know what Tim Hortons was and Jon's hockey mates from Canada said he had to stop in if he ever went to Canada. Good bagels.
Jon skated one night with the Bantams/1st year hs players for some 4 on 4 shinny. Another rink haven't been in to before. Jon knew a couple kids he played with in the spring. Nephew Peter gave me the run down on the other players.

Carlos making himself at home.
Poker with spongebob cards.
Sis.

Good trip, good times.

2011-10-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

Every year I try to end the final MTB report I do for Bruce over at skinnyski with a interview. This year it was Steve Tilford. I thought he gave some great responses. Interesting guy that loves to ride his bike.

Links to a couple previous interviews.

Carl Swenson Interview

Garrot Kuzzy Interview

Piotr Bednarski Interview

Like the bike and ski connection.

Bruce asked me maybe 8-9 years ago to do a preview of the season. I enjoy writing about something I love and do it on a volunteer type basis. No big bucks like a few folks have asked. Ha! Just happy to help out Bruce since he has such a good thing going for silent sport enthusiasts.

2011-10-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

One week ago, pretty much at this moment, I was on my way to the emergency room in Detroit Lakes. I was on my way over to the lodge on my bike, like I always am, to put the dogs in the "cathouse" and pick up some bacon at the lodge freezer for some breakfast burrito action the next morning to fuel up for a ride at Cuyuna and take a half day off to burn off frustration from paying 100 thousand in taxes that day. The dogs picked up scent of some critter, steered off course so I went around the cathouse to chase them down and ka POW! I was down for the count stunned and trying to figure out what happened. I ran in to a temporary shepherd hook we had staked on the ski trail for a wedding a few weekends back. My hands were all wet and realized I was bleeding pretty good. I hoped back on my bike and weaved back to the house and yelled out for Jonell. She came up from downstairs and said "we got to take you in" I was bleeding out my nose, mouth and hacking up blood and my nose was most likely broken. Got to the ER and they put me in a neck brace and I had some xrays and c scan after getting asked if I was under the influence of drugs or alcohol (no) and if I was on a bike that you "pedal". They wanted to give me nausea drugs, antibiotics, pain killers, and a tetanus shot but I didn't see a reason for any of it and hate putting anything in to my system that I don't have to, so passed. I was close to throwing up and a result of a concussion the doc said I incurred.

No pictures taken at the ER or post accident of a shiner and swollen nose but drips of blood on the bike. I guess I figure there are folks a lot more worse off than I am to be posting pictures of something minor, really, and lucky it wasn't much worse. I have recovered pretty quick and waking up with a stiff neck and some brain fog each morning is manageable. The ride to Cuyuna didn't happen obviously. Not sure if I will be mountain biking any more this fall. Roller skiing and running on tap and riding the trainer and ready for the snow to start falling now.

The fact I have both eyes to enjoy the most incredible sunset this fall under a rare still evening last week is much to be thankful for and thank God each day for everything I have. Thanks to Jonell for being the best nurse possible last week.

2011-10-10T12:01:00.001-07:00

Lot of running last week. Not running to town and what not but actual running. Jack wrapped up cross country last week and we are running as we wait for snow and ice. The arena is putting in new boards and hopefully things work out to have ice by the end of this month and if the end of this month is like the last two Octobers, we should be skiing a few days before months end.

Jack had his last meet at Perham. The Perham course is custom built designed after the state meet course. This year they added some dirt "moguls" which were more like jumps at a dirt jump track. Jack said he was thinking of Jake when he went over the dirt piles "I bet he would like to take his bike on this". Jack ran great and had a fun time with cc this year.

Saturday we had the Pumpkin Run. A 4km loop on Lucky's Loype ski trail and a section of singletrack after the top of Suicide Hill after running up it. Bunch of pictures here. Jens and Jake ran as Jack and Jon were at a bible camp. Props to Jon and Jack being nominated for student of the month for September for their respective grades and Jon winning student of the month. Proud parents.

Carlos running with Lars Ellefeson up Suicide. Carlos was having a absolute blast. I was camped out around Suicide most of the race and he was flying through the woods picking up scent from the runners and flying all over the place.
Steve Wenzel running on the singletrack. Steve definitely has the most appearances at Maplelag events hitting the Pumpkin Run, Lotvola Cup ski race and Laddies Loppet and the UCI Spring Opener race we did in 07. Steve hasn't missed many years.
Jonell getting promoted to timing this year. Said couldn't of done it without corn maze training.
Grousing on Sunday with Jens, Jon and Jack. Looking for the one grouse we have seen over 600 acres. Don't think we are in a up cycle but good times strolling through the woods and what not.

2011-10-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

Jack is the only one doing a fall sport. He is running cross country. He is having a good time, hanging out with friends and keeping active.

Friday they had a in house meet. It was a loop in around the football fields and you could watch the whole time. The runners from 6th grade on up were there to support and cheer them on.

Jack finishing strong throwing down a nice sprint catching two runners at the end.

Coach Freeman is doing a great job keeping the kids motivated, having fun and keeping kids interested. Before the meet he was talking stolen apple pie. During the week, they collected apples and made pies on Friday to sell. Some of my best memories in high school were the two years I ran cc. Jackalope hunting, mile intervals at the airport on the runway, ice berging..good times.

Sunday rollerskied with Jake. Haven't roller skied in maybe 3-4 years and never this early in the year. Couldn't of done 15km unless I was with someone. Hoping to get those wheels moving couple times a week during the fall until the white falls for real.

2011-09-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

This past week, Jonell and I took 24 hours off for a getaway. We were going to go to Brainerd lakes area and I was going to check out Cuyuna again but saving a second trip there with Steve Wenzel. Instead, we went west to the peaceful, low key town of Fort Ransom, ND. FR is located just a hour southwest of Fargo and just over 2 hours from here. I have been to FR one other time for a mountain bike race there maybe 15-16 years ago and haven't been there since. I always tell people the race at Fort Ransom was the coolest race I have ever done in ND. The race was tight, technical and a good mix of everything great of riding in North Dakota. Unfortunately, they only did it that one year but I talked to Tom with the FM trailbuilders crew and is looking at hosting a race next summer as part of a series in these parts. Anyways, last year the Feds pumped almost $100k in to the park and upgraded the trail system including the addition of 17 miles of multi-use trails. (hikers, bikers and horses) They also purchased some land to the south to expand the acreage for the park. Maplelag team riders, Matt Engen and Steve have been over there riding and I have talked to a few other riders who have recommended checking it out. It was a fun, relaxing trip and Jonell and I had a great time checking out the area outside the trails. There wasn't anyone there and one of the most peaceful, relaxing places we have ever been to. If you haven't figured it out yet, I am big on pictures....

Rolling along the west end of the park on the Nelson 80 trail. A mix of open prairie riding, coulee riding and deep woods feel with active creeks running by. Very fast riding with the openness but you have to be ready at the turns and what not otherwise you will be sage pizza.
The trail wasn't technical to speak, and reminded me of the Cuyuna trails without the big berms and rocks. There was a little bit of pump action on the downhills. You would be surprised the elevation change (which I don't have anything to record).
This is the possibly some old mtb singletrack I remember from the race but not part of the current system now. I rode on this in the open areas connecting with some deer trails and other nature trails. The colors were hitting their peak on most trees. Beautiful fall day.

Little video of trail sampling.

Very nice, simple interpretive center that was open and had some good displays of the history of the area.
Click on image for larger viewing.

The first loop I did only took 40 minutes so I came back to touch base with Jonell who was working on bills. Jonell always brings bills along when we sneak out for the overnight dates as she rather spend an hour with no distractions doing this painful task instead of dragging it out over a couple hours or more at home/office.
When I came back from the ride, Jonell had fallen asleep in the lawn to the gurgling of the shay ani or whatever Jake called that river. When the wind doesn't blow off the prairie through the valley, there is a surreal quiet.

When we were about to leave, Ranger Blaire came by making the rounds and picked everything I could out of his brain. He has been back and forth to Alaska 34 times he says and said there is no park he has ever seen like Fort Ransom.

Went up to the "scenic point" to take the scene in for a while. This area was all water during the glacial melt as Lake Souris ran south and carved out the beautiful Cheyenne valley.

The myth about the hill just east of the settlement is that is was formed by man but the experts say it is because of the glacial melt. Either way, Thor stands on top checking out the scene.

Thor also is a regular at the Old Mill Grill.

Fort Ransom is also home to the Bears Den downhill ski area, an active hill.
The ski area is not part of the park and is privately owned by a family. Great to see this area still making it. Fun stuff.

Pisten Bully ready for white and power tilling action.
This is a great sign because it is true.

Across the valley, you can see the ski runs and see how the hill extends above from the sightline in previous picture. For eastern ND, not to shabby. If you thought Super D was running through my mind, you are correct. Simple ski area, mostly visited by folks in the area and Valley City and not much Fargo traffic, according to the local I talked to near by. There are no mtb etc. trails here I could tell.

View from the scenic point that shows the top half of the hill. The trail running down is signed as a xc ski trail for the winter. It made for a fun descent on the mtb and similar trail on the other side of the bush for a good climb back up.

Nice roads in the area would be good rollerskiing with little traffic this time of year.

Disappointing not to see snow being live and all.
Football and baseball field in Enderlin blended together nicely with railroad tracks nearby.
The blonde corn mazes are the big thing this year so I stopped at one for Jonell. This one was too easy so we found another one that was a bit more challenging.
Fun adventure and like I said, don't think we have ever been to such a peaceful place before. It does sound like it gets busy on the weekends with the horse traffic. Next time we go back, we will camp out. Not sure if this tops the other adventure in ND Jake, Jack and I had at White Butte, the highest point in North Dakota. But if you think ND is flat and boring, you need to get off the interstate and explore. Geologically, there really isn't any other place like it in the world from east side to west.

2011-09-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

The past 6 or 7 years, the kids have always had the last Monday of September off from school. Each of those years we have gone out camping the night before to sleep under the stars. We had a group function at the resort that ran into the evening this past Sunday but we still went out in the dark to the north end of north twin lakes, keeping tradition, and enjoyed a beautiful evening and next morning in the woods.

It should be illegal to take a pug in to the woods. The other rule is no cell phones etc but someone snuck one in. Busted. Not happy.
Jack and I on breakfast duty.
Jonell managed to keep the mug level after tipping back with Jens.
Solid ground for a solid night of sleep?!?

Goofing around. Amazing no trips to ER with deer fort climbing, ax swinging and walking around with sticks in the dark.
There was a birch that had lost its top but the bottom part was still solid and Jon got it down for future firewood after chopping for a hour.

Over the weekend we had a group at the resort but I was able to take Jake to St. Cloud for the final race in the Minnesota series. It was a bigger deal to me than Jake probably, being it was his last race as a JR during his Sr year of school. I should of raced but I wanted to watch instead since there won't be many more times like this. I made a video documenting the action. Good to see Kris and Kyia and their new baby. The first race Jonell and I took Jake to 18 yrs ago, he was only four weeks old, heading to the north shore to race in the Sawtooth Challenge out of Grand Marais. Anyways, probably the most fun I've had at a race this year, running around watching and riding a lap afterwards.

It think the peak of fall color tops all other years, this year. Mainly because we have had no big wind or rain and very indian summer like weather. Incredible conditions in the woods.

September 28th Fall Color Photos

2011-09-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

Last week my nephew Marco had a cc meet in Bagley. Marco runs for the International Falls Broncos. It was maybe of the largest meets in northwest MN. All teams from the border towns and as far south as Pelican Rapids, east as Pequot lakes (where we ran in to fellow mtbker Brandt Elson waving the Maplelag flag nicely) and west as Hawley (which is partnered with Ulen Hitterdal for cc and has the Fighting Walleye as the mascot).

After Jake was done with his intern work, we went the hour north to watch the meet but first made a stop on the west side of Itasca Park to check out some forest roads I have always wanted to explore. It was raining pretty good but we still went out to grind some sand in to the drivetrain and what not. We picked up the Cox Lake forest road just east off of hiway 37. To the west is the White Earth State forest land. I have not quite ridden the trails from the lake cabin all the way to 37 so this is an easy way to see what things look like east as I continue to formulate a master plan Ha! for a possible future point to point/gravel grinder/ mountain bike adventure type thing.

Blessed to live in area I feel is the most beautiful in the world this time of year. The trails and roads were just like Chequamegon pretty much. The rain intensified and what was bone dry a few days ago, got pretty greasy muddy. Fun stuff. Jake was a trooper. Thanks Jake.
I am in a video making mode, having discovered a new program that is super easy and doesn't take much time. Highlights below.

Jake said he was fired up for the ski season after watching. The atmosphere of the teams tents very similar and just awesome seeing all those kids active.
We were going to stop at Ice Cracking for a burger on the way home but good thing we called ahead to find out closed so we floated around 113 and stopped in to the Elbow lake store/bar/cafe for the first time ever. There was a little too much microwave door opening and closing for me but the best part was talking to the owner and observing the areas finest. The owner was on the phone talking to his relatives about some heart issues he had no idea...."yeah, they said my resting heart rate was 160 but I had thought she was all good". Got the run down on bear season, ducks, grouse and everything else awesome about the northwoods.
Fun trip with Jake. Good times.

2011-09-23T08:14:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe it has been a week already since we went over to Chequamegon, one of the largest off road events in the country. Taking a few days off this time of year takes double the days to catch up. Anyways, if you haven't read the race Recap on Midwest MTB report on skinnyski.com click here

Also have a update on the team site

The whole family went along this year which made for some good times. We had Jake's girlfriend, Jess, along as well and Jonell's parents in caravan. Jonell's sister and her family hooked up as well, flying in to the Telemark airport Friday evening.

The race went great. Weather was perfect, and fun to be part of the racing atmosphere again. Both Jonell and I felt flat in the beginning. Legs locked up and couldn't get it cranking. We have the stamina to ride all day but the start of the short and fat is fast and furious. This year was even faster with the quads letting riders do their thing right off the bat and helped Jordan Cullen run sub 50 which was solid. Congrats to him.
We rode a clean race for the first time, not having to get off our bikes to push any hills or adjust the timing change like we have had problems in the fast. I don't have the power to motor that thing but I like the challenge. Riding the bumpy non Birkie ski trail is more keeping the bike upright and in one piece than going hard. We weren't "tired" so to speak. It's a different type of expenditure, hard to explain. I ran the helmet cam for the first time and had it mounted on the side. It pulled which I thought I would be able to block out during the race but it was a bit annoying. All good learning. Jonell said next time she wants to do the 40. Might try to sneak Jon on there as well in the short and fat before he grows up too much. Having the tandem I want to race it in this race every year and would only run solo if someone else was running it (Jake and Jon!?!) One year Jake and I will do it on the 40. First Jonell and I though...

The card filled up after 40 minutes but I made a five minute clip from those 40 minutes for anyone curious what things are like a little bit.

TJ was in NewFoundLand CAN during the week and using his French Canadian to help Val score the preme parking spot.

Saturday night post race at Garmisch Inn.

Bloody Mary meal.
Once again, Sunday Funday was one of the highlights. Jack scored the balloon and helping wave the flag for the day. It would be hard to take us away from the day's activities. There are tons of sweet trail to ride in the area but if Gary Crandal and his crew put the effort to pull it off, you need to support if you can. Like I said before, back in the old days there used to be age class qualifiers for age class finals. It was great racing. Still fun action now but disappointed not to see the numbers. There was talk about Lifetime fronting a big cash purse to not only draw riders for Saturday but keep the big names around for Sunday with a big cash purse and some good spectating action. Will be interesting to see how things play out in the future. You wouldn't know any of that happened other than a Lifetime tent set up. You hate to see that happen but after the past two years Laddies Loppet, even though the numbers have been up, going to have to hit the sponsorship up hard again...or run non sanctioned.

Having fun on Sunday. The rain made no difference during the day. Jake did his first 40 after five years doing the short and fat including 3 back to back wins. Compared to most guys in the top 20, his training was pretty light as he is more in restoration mode before cranking things up for the ski season and had a solid first year attempt.

Football action Saturday afternoon. Getting Jess ready for the Powder Puff game on Monday. Even have the drain field pipes for obstacles. Jess tougher than all those guys and not afraid to throw them down.

Jon going crazy low in the limbo.Love the crit style racing. Jon and family providing great cheering support in the spectator friendly event.

Stop in Duluth on way home. As usual, make the most of the day before getting home. We caught the naked bike stealing Barbie that has been roaming Duluth. We did a citizen arrest and brought her home to met rez Ken.
Jens and Jon in Ragstock.
Doesn't matter what happens racing...always good times when the whole gang is along.

2011-09-15T19:44:00.000-07:00

The weather this month has been.....weather. Tranquil, warm, and dry. Past two days a one two punch cold front pushed through making for all time record lows for the month of September. The frost was thick this morning and we thought about frost skiing but didn't seem right to do it this early.

The big Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival is this weekend. Jonell and I will be racing the tandem again in the short and fat after a two year break. We have been getting a few rides in, including a couple rides at the lake cabin the past few weeks on some incredible days like the first photo. Dead calm, middle of afternoon. Not sure if ever seen that before. Race preview for 40.

Managed to convert the tandem for water travel.

Tuna fish hotdish has a bad rap but Jonell makes a mean blend that is just as good the next day.

2011-09-12T20:03:00.000-07:00

Can't go much longer in to September without keeping form like previous years on this blog..... and post a photo of the first day of school.....which was one week ago.
Jens (8) 3rd grade. Jack (12) 6th grade. Jon (14) 8th grade. Jake (18) 12th grade. Jakes last year of school.
First day of school 5 years ago. Jens' first year of school.

2011-09-09T09:20:00.001-07:00

Thanks to everyone who came to Maplelag last weekend for the Loppet weekend. It was a great weekend for sure. For me, if we can get through the weekend with no major injuries (I think Hollywood's gash was the biggest) no one lost or off course, no major mixup on the results, it is a successful weekend. The weather was about as good as it gets for racing and to have the resort filled with bikers, family and friends is awesome. A huge huge thanks to everyone who helped out. Our great staff that just gets it done, the volunteers from the Prairie Edge Nordic Skiers group, Larry and Sue Martin from USA Cycling, Tom and Lori Warner, Matt and Meredith Johnson, Kriston Wenzel and Steve and the boys who took down the fencing. Also to our neighbors who came over Sunday late night to help un plug the sewer line the was plugged.
Jake weed whacked the entire course 2-3 weeks out than the last week blew out the 8 miles of singletrack with the leaf blower which made for a polished and fast riding course. Last and certainly not least, my wonderful wife Jonell who provides such great support and keeps on top of the to do check list and keeping everything smooth after making sure months ahead of time all bases are covered. It was good for Jonell to see the action at the PRO XCT at WORS Cup this year and also the MNMBS race at Elk River to see what they were doing. I took some of the experiences Jake and I witnessed at Sun Valley Natz and we take note what the riders like and what not and try to incorporate at our event.

The Maplelag team had a fantastic showing and I think most everyone had one of their best results of the year. It doesn't surprise me as these are the type of riders we are honored to have on the team, some of the best skilled riders in the various classes with a positive attitude and a love for the sport of cycling.

I took some random photos took try and capture what was going on. I thought I had one of our new registration area with the awesome registrants...can't find it!

This is one of my favorite photos Bruce took over the weekend. Cole Johnson, Devon and Wyatt Horner before their race.

Troy Melhus with his fresh one. His little girl got lots of attention over the weekend. Troy and Julie got married at Maplelag three years ago.
Great to see the huge kids comp fields. This is one of my favorite races to watch, and not because I had two kids racing! The short track was the best. The first year WORS had Citizen youth, we raced a few races that year, than I said we have to have that at Maplelag. After the first year at Maplelag, the MN series adapted the class and it has been a great distance for the 8-12 year olds.
Good crowds at the lakeside drops. With the longer loop, there weren't as many passes but it seemed to work out well.

Camping scene continues to grow...Everyone that camped this year has first priority. If anyone doesn't rebook, than a spot will be open. Looking at overflow camping at a neighbors field once I find out who is interested in opening up a field.

Bootleggers. No fires outside designated places please.
One of the awards ceremony.
Every year when I head out to mark the course for the first race, I bump into Sam O who is walking the course. Beautiful mornings each day.
Kids enjoying the root beer keg. Jarrett on the pump action.
Jonell putting old shoes to use on the Scandinavian Smorgasbord prepared by chef Deb and the fantastic kitchen staff.
More bike part action.

Jens racing in the short track.
Jack racing in the cross country. Proud of Jack for doing all three races.
Jake had is best short track finish, placing fourth. Also did the tandem with Jess in the time trial which was sweet.
The group of Canadians Monday morning. Thanks to the ones that helped clean up Sunday night. Not what you want to deal with for three hours Sunday night at end of race day but, ummm,...... happens! Called our septic guy but all pumps checked out okay and ended up being something like a wash cloth or diaper that gut flushed down.

Hollywood drawing race strategy for Chequemegon in the parking lot before departure.

Thanks again everyone!

2011-08-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

A great start to the Fall season. Most people don't like to think that way, August still being summer, but at the resort, we are in Fall mode and ready for the cooler months. The weather has cooled down for the most part, and it has been very dry allowing the water tables to settle down. A few leaves are starting to change giving taste of Autumn.

Last week we had the Northern State cc team from Aberdeen SD. Great group of kids and coach. In addition to running, they played basketball, volleyball with a medicine ball, hit up the Three Bears golf course for some speed golf and lots of swimming. Keeping active the whole day which is awesome. Hoping in the future to have a week of running camps like we do the ski camps in December. The Nature Conservancy was also here at the same time for a retreat and good to see some of the participants hit up the trails in their free time for running and mountain biking.

Over the weekend we had a wedding for a skier from DL that I coached back when he was in high school. Da Giff. In addition to regular training, we did a bunch of "fun" skiing that more high school skiers should do. The JibSkates came out his Sr year I think and we put them to the test proper.
Giff's best man was "Zigs" another skier and mountain biker I trained with during his high school days. Also far left was Danny Johnson, the first skier I worked with. All these guys skied at college and doing great post college.

The biggest wedding drama was the couple that had followed their navigational system from Bemidji and ended up on the Rat Lake trail. Came to a puddle and decided to go for it. Didn't make it through and water up coming up to the seat levels. Got grandma out safely and eventually to Maplelag after tow truck came and took car to DL. I talked to Bruce Adelsman about the flaws with navigation systems for rural areas and he was telling me about a trail system he built and had on google but they contract these map builders from India and they took it off and put something else on that was totally off. Living in Norway and getting in to orienteering I got in to maps. When I go to a new trail system though, I like to just bike and ski than look at the map afterwards. Jonell's brother and dad scored a nice aerial of the lake cabin above that was the only map I had to reference when I first started exploring around there and until they came out with snowmobile maps and now everything has changed.
Also over the weekend, Jon had his final hockey tourney of the summer. I snuck down for the early games on Friday and he stayed with the Brace family the rest of the weekend, like he did last weekend. Huge, huge thanks to them. The team is a very nice team but they just couldn't get any lucky bounces and hitting a ton of pipes to advance out of pool play. Jon had some nice games and ended up being the leading scorer for the team. This last tourney was probably the best competition wise and just crazy the programs the twin cities kids are involved with. A few years ago I had no idea the extent of these AAA teams, not knowing which team was what. After this summer, talking to parents on other teams, got things sorted out and just glad to be living where we do and Jon planning on staying at DL all the way through. Jon has been working hard on his shot shooting pucks almost daily up to 2 hours a time.
Coming home from the cities, saw these guys hanging up high.
Last time I saw guys hanging up high was in Puerta Vallarta MX. Except they weren't holding up traffic for 20 miles, no helmets or harnesses and no orange cones.
Sunday late afternoon after the weekend wound down, went up to the lake cabin for the evening for maybe one last pontoon ride, a sweet ride in the am in the White Earth state forest capping off 24 hours of restoration before gearing up for the big Loppet weekend. Everything is looking great on the course and what not and looking forward to a awesome weekend. Thanks to everyone is supporting the event.

2011-08-21T19:25:00.000-07:00

This time of year always seems to be one of busiest. The language camps end and we make the transition back to "Maplelag", cleaning and getting everything in order and getting things lined up for fall and thinking ahead to winter. With the twin lakes singletrack being part of the Loppet course this year for the Sport Comp and Expert, a extra 3 miles to fine tune and have done more pulaski work this summer than I can remember.

Jack celebrated his 12th last week. Had a couple of friends over than we went up to the lake cabin for the night as well for some good times. Said this probably a few weeks ago, kids are growing up TOO FAST!

A couple of weeks ago a nice white oak lakeside was struck by lightning. There was a Paul Bunyan size tooth pick that came out of the ordeal and the tree looked like it was going to hang on but probably go through a slow death with the crack. Last week it spit in two from wind.
It fell right on the lakeside singletrack covering up a pretty long section.

Basically cut it up to make clear for the singletrack.

The trees that fall on the trails, just the birch, maple and oak, we cut up to blocks, if we can, and split for the wood stoves. This year we have a student for Macedonia helping out for the summer. His name is Kire and he has been awesome. His work ethic is incredible with a great attitude, no complaining or reasoning. He definitely has split more than any other student. All the sheds are full pretty much and the pile above is reserve. Ready for early snow and cold!

Last week he helped me out most days and was fun visiting with him and learning about his culture a bit. He is going to school to learn how to run a winery. He has family that is in the business now and told he how they will pick grapes for 10 days straight up to 10 hours a day in 30 Celsius. The end of the week was a sad one for him as he lost his two best friends in a freak car/train accident. A group of five were going down this mountain type road and lost control and rolled on to a train track. No one died but some were in rough shape. The ones okay were pulling others out of the car before a train came and hit his best friend and another friend as they were not able to get out in time. Just makes you sick.

Pulaski work on the main loop. The Twin lakes loop is riding really nice and should be a great addition to the race this year. It isn't quite as demanding with not as steep up and downs and has pretty good flow with more pumpy and bermy stuff. If you pre-ride anything before the race, do the loop so you know where the typical surprise stuff is.
Saturday Tom Heilman and the FM Trailbuilders put on a race at Johnson park. Jake and I made the short trip over to partake in the action. It was a real fun course actually and they did a great job working with what they had and the challenges of a very wet summer and the Red River that wiped out a lot of trail this spring. A ongoing battle but they are plugging away to keep some trails open and opportunities for mtbers in the area. The regulars were there including the Wenzel family and good to see them. Has been to long and not frequent enough. It felt good to pin a number on again and do a race. I did a race here back in the 90's and these types of events are great. You don't feel like you have to ride a certain bike, drive a certain car or belong to a a certain health club. Not sure if it will work to do any series races this year, guess it would only be one, but maybe do a few cross races include state cx if it works out. Just being able to ride and feel more normal without the arms and upper shoulders totally getting tight and stiff is great.
Jonell and I finally got out on the tandem. Screaming down the forest roads with the big wheels always a good time. The sugar creek road is perfect for it and never gets old riding on this back road east side of Big Sugarbush lake.

2011-08-08T16:18:00.000-07:00

Jon was invited to play in the Midwest Selects tournament last weekend so we were at Fogarty in Blaine. The south arena has a electric zamboni which you don't see to often. It works pretty slick except for when the boom that feeds the electrical gets hung up. Wasn't a bad thing as it allowed the ice to bone up in the afternoon when it was humid outside. Jon had fun, gained some confidence with his shot and excited for remaining tourneys this summer which will see some good competition.
Jake, Jack, Jens and I caught the first half of the Sunday morning game than went up to Duluth for the Great Hawk Chase at Lester Park. Jake had a more normal week and back up in the front like he has been this season. The week before Elk River he started up some intense dryland for xc skiing and roller skied hard on Friday with Jon when normally he would take the day off. He still raced at Elk River giving it a go but just didn't "have it" and played smart pulling out. Duluth: course at Lester is awesome. Have ridden there twice but never raced. Conditions turned out perfect and those thinking it was going to be muddy shouldn't worry about mud. Just race. Was itching too after catching the action but had fun watching one of the more exciting races I can remember as racing was tight in the 3rd to 10th spots. Jake racing with Scott Kylander Johnson above. You can't tell but halfway in race or so, Scotty went down hard and dislocated/separated his shoulder and was in serious pain. Toughed it out to still pull off a top 7.
Barry Tungseth is rolling really strong right now and looked very smooth out there. One of the few riders to keep it clean on the day and rode smart. Todd McFadden chases Barry at this point still able to uncork a top five at age 47. Nicely done!

My sister, Uncle Dan and her boys came down from the "Falls" to watch and nice they did that. My dad also came up with foreign student Kira from Macedonia who is working at Maplelag this summer. Thanks to my mom for holding down the fort making sure campers didn't bring canoes in to the lodge and pet killing critter patrol.

The Lester river was raging good and didn't take long for Jens and Jack to hit the water. Jens going off above. Thanks to Meredith for keeping eye early. Sad news found out later in day boy earlier in week was up stream and disappeared and found in lake Superior on Sunday.
Peter wasn't around in above photo with cousins but caught him jumping in the river.
Jack.

Hockey in the morning, river jumping in the afternoon. Jon and Jonell came up after his game to catch Jakes race as it started.

Expert awards. Scott used his one avail finger to hold his prize money and medal.

Party on!

2011-08-04T19:57:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Jens had his third and final hockey tourney in Alex. He wanted to bring his bike along so he could ride on the bike path there after his last game. The bike path in Alex has been a good thing for getting the wheels moving. Tons of people using the trail in various forms. All good.
Jack got home from two weeks of Italian camp. He went the day before we got home from Idaho so I hadn't seen him in three weeks. Great to have Jack back and he was in Jack form right away.

Jonell and I got up to the lake cabin earlier in the week, just the two of us. My mom had the three youngest boys in I Fall visiting cousins and dad covering at home, thanks to both. First time in 20 years just us there. Was probably the most quiet we have seen it other than the Fall.
Pastor Pinehurst kept an eye on everything, like usual, making sure no shenanigans.

Monday night it rained almost 3" in the area, washing out some of the roads on the forest/snowmobile roads. Within 8 hours, the White Earth maint. department was filling them up and had them graded by the time I came back from a loop.

Second day rode up to Strawberry mountain via the forest road and Norris road. With the rain, the climb up was probably in the best condition ever seen it with all the loose washed down below. I still wasn't able to clean the middle section which is the most steepest. Stawberry Mountain is the 20th highest point in MN. But the Norris road to the east a bit actually climbs to over 2000 ft. From a starting point of 1400 ft or so, makes for a fast rolling ride back.

Not much has changed in the area the last 20 years, time pretty much stands still. Sue bought a house in the area and put up a food stand. The min donuts were pretty good.

2011-07-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

Celebrated Jon's 14th birthday this week.

Fourteen is that age things definitely start changing. All good.

Up to the lake cabin for the afternoon and evening. Grandpa Rodney navigating the waters.

It has also been a year since we first adopted Carlos. He has been a great dog and enjoyed his first pontoon ride.

2011-07-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

A quiet weekend after coming home from Natz. Kids off to various camps as well and nothing major on the weekend other than the usual chores. Jake pointed out 34 hours of traveling in 2 days but now home after a good week in Michigan at young life camp.

Saturday rode a lap of this years Sport/Comp/Expert look. With slightly cooler temps and a race pace ride, the deer flies were not that bad. Only bit twice which was amazing. (Working on the trail this week has been brutal. Flies are like we have never seen) The loop is around 10 miles and took me around a hour. Once we get everything buffed out proper, should see the top Experts crank laps out in 50 minutes or so. Sport race should be around 1 hour with one lap, Comp and Ex women 1 1/2 laps and Experts two laps. The twin lakes singletrack rides good at a fast speed and some fine tuning the next few weeks should put it in better condition. The woods are as lush as we have ever seen and the trees are doing very well, especially the pine trees we have planted.

We had nephew Garrett for a while before he and Jens went to camp. He was loving the smores.

Introduced him to Nutella. Spread on a Norwegian pancake.
The tour wrapped up on the weekend and was good to see Cadel take the win. I was looking for the article I thought I had saved of when Jeff Hall and he battled in the America's Cup. Couldn't find it but did stumble across the old flier for the Fat Tire Frenzy. Did the race in 96 when part of the WIM series. You think its far driving up here from the cities, doing the WIM series was 6-10 hours one way of traveling from where we lived in Essex. Made for a lighter schedule but the races/courses were awesome. Always keep the Frenzy on the radar...hope to get back some day and race it.

Stumbled across a bunch of results from the 90's including the above from the NORBA National in Traverse City in 1996. Note the 8th place finish by Cadel with Jeff Hall just one spot behind by a few seconds. (Click on photo for better viewing) Other MN riders doing the Elite that year, Eric Bartz and crazy George Hayes. Ned Overend was 18th which was four places off from his 14th place at Nationals this year in Sun Valley at age 55!! The guy is amazing, very inspiring.

Lake cabin action for the day on Saturday. Uncle Ryan brought the first corn of the year from the corn capital of Minnesota. Some of the best ever. Cooked over open fire with burgers, beans and beer doesn't get much better.

Jens wanted to get in a ride after I logged a 25 road excursion straight north. Rode up to Naytahwaush and he sprinted the hills. The rides are getting longer and bit more intensity. Coming around more and more. Feels good.

Yoda dog killed a rabbit and ate part of a leg before I intervened. It was disgusting. Poor rabbit. What did it do to deserve this. Uncle Ryan didn't believe us. Think he just jealous because his dog eats corn cobs.

Jon picked a good week to be at hockey camp during the heat wave. Despite the warm temps and power being out at the arena for a few hours one night, the ice was in great shape and always nice to have ice in town for the weeks we do during the summer.

Jack is in second week of Italian camp. First day he writes letter to mom "come pick me up" but no letter since so I am sure the decaf espressos are flowing nicely, he is making good friends and picking up some words.

2011-07-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

Super D and Short Track wrapped up the final day in Nationals. Riders below getting ready before the start.

Super D is one of the coolest things to happen in mountain biking the last 10 years. The first Super D I think I did was at the WORS cup when they had it had Devils Head. They called it a tt but it had more down than up. The first big mountain one was MT Snow than at Windham which was a great course, specifically built for Super D. Sol Vista had a nice Super D course and the only other place in the Midwest to run one is the WORS Cup again at MT Morris. Nice course for what they have to work with. When Super D first started, guys and gals were using their cross country rigs but now the all mountain bike seems to be the ride of choice. A Super D series in MN would be awesome. Most of the venues used for the MNMBS series could host a Super D nicely and Giants Ridge already has a dh course and a little up could easily be added. Duluth could have at least 4 courses. Everytime I drive across from WI I look at that powerline in Duluth and have visions of Super D. Super D is downhill racing without big jumps and the scary stuff the real downhillers do and a certain amount of climbing to keep the dh guys honest... and give the skinny cross country guys a chance to put on some time.....
...unless you are Adam Craig who can descend with the best with them and still pull off a top 3 in the XC. The announcer was putting riders like Ross Schnell and Mark Wier in the same category as AC but there is no all around rider like Craig. He has been Natl champ in XC but has some of the best descending skills in the sport. Once cool thing about Adam is at the start he is mingling with everyone regardless what level and just like everyone else, loves to ride his bike and shred trails across the world. At Sun Valley they did interval starts which was a good move and gave everyone clean lines and fair shot.
I rode the course before everyone started. It was 42 degrees at the base but about 20 degrees warmer at top with the sun hitting after the gondola ride up. Started off with a very climb to the top on the other side of Mt Baldy after a quick downhill start. A climb like this makes the downhillers dream about snicker bars at the bottom. The gravity events are happening in Bend this year so the only real downhillers that came out of the sage brush where the locals but looking at the results, it was mostly xc guys on the podium.
Open singletrack near the top before switch back.
Nothing to tech. Fast riding. Super fun.
Deeper in the woods.
Back on double track. Fastest section. The only thing I forgot from back home was my wheelset I had set up specifically for the Super D. Running tubulars was a bit risky but the benefits of running that set up was great and no troubles getting down.
Back in the woods on the flowy descending stuff used in the xc race. Trickiest part was staring in to the sun and not hitting the elbows on some of the trees. We didn't pre-ride the course but Jake had a solid result nailing down 15th out of 60 riders, mostly all from big mountain states.
Short track racing later morning. Jake ended having late race battle with fellow Midwest rider Miles Beach. Jake just nipped Miles at the line for 16th. Nice racing by both.
Overall it was a great trip and definitely my favorite area/venue I have been to for a National. The Powerhouse Sports was a great find, thanks to heads up by Geno and nice to visit with the owner Billy Olson. Excellent eats and bikes all over with ones for sell, bikes being built and bikes being repaired. Most of the people that came in were bikers and the table setting was very similar to Maplelag where you sat at a table with 2-3 different parties making for some good and interesting conversation. Read nice article about Olson in the Sun Valley guide and pleased to find it online. Check it out if you didn't see in skinnyski report which has full recap of Nationals.
I had the jibskates packed but we didn't venture off the main path to find snow as Jake had to get back so he could get ready for Young Life camp which he is at now in northern lower Michigan. We did stop by the Rendezvous trail head before a beautiful evening drive through Yellowstone and safe trip home.

2011-07-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

With no racing on Saturday other than plans to catch the Pro races, we hit a trail outside Hailey. All the locals we have talked to in Hailey have been super nice, friendly and eager to share their favorite places to ride so we felt obligated to check something out.

Riding on Deer Creek forest road before hitting up the Panther trail.

The areas that had springs running on the trail were loaded with buttterflies. Coming back down we ran into hundreds of them but butterflies way better than deer flies.
Lots of wildflowers blooming along the side.

Riding on the Panther creek trail. Once you start climbing its hard to stop.
Catching some air on a water bar on the way back down.
Taking a dip in the Big Wood river post ride. With still plenty of snow up high, the water is nice and cold and very refreshing.

2011-07-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

Great day of racing in Sun Valley. Pretty much textbook mountain weather with dry air, cool morning temps and afternoon warmth with a nice breeze.

Thanks to the MNMBS doing a great job sending results in a timely fashion to USA Cycling, Jake had a great call up being the fourth rider to the line out of the 51 riders. It was the largest field on the day. Off the line he had a good start settling in a nice position on the steep climb.
He was running around 10-12 spot and catching riders on the climb than had a rare crash on the third lap, losing a few spots and finishing a solid 16th place among mostly mountain state riders.
Cleaning the rock garden descent.
Congrats to Jack Hinkens on his impressive ride, taking second in the U23 race. Looked very smooth the entire race. Saturday are the Pro races than Sunday will wrap up the racing with Super D and short track.

2011-07-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

Pre Ride on Thursday, first people we bump in to are Michelle and Chris Peariso from WI. with Adventure 212. Always good to see folks from the Midwest. We saw Jack Hinkens go by when we first started but didn't see him again. He is starting right before Jake so look forward to watching him dice it up with the Nations best.

The course is pretty straight forward. After a small loop on the flats with a couple rock garden sections, the lap heads straight up a access road to the high point of the course. With no break in the climbing, it is all downhill after the high point.
At the high point we met up with TJ Woodruff and Chloe Forsman.
The descent ducks into the woods for some sweet switchbacking flowy descents. Nothing very technical with the trickiest parts are the corners that are loose. Jake and I both thought this was very similar to the new Cuyuna trail we rode back in June but quite a bit longer obviously. Best part of the course.
Near the end of the loop, at the bottom, is man made rock garden section. They were watering it down after we went through and not good as some riders came through and went down hard. The lap Jake will be racing is right around 4 miles with close to 900ft of climbing in each lap.
Cool down on the busy bike path that runs between all the towns and came upon the pump track in Ketchum. Rode around on it for a while. Fun stuff. Saturday night the state pump track champs are going on. Not sure the format.

2011-07-14T11:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend enjoyed a light schedule with not much going on. Going to church on Sunday the important thing on the agenda and Jake racing at Buck Hill which he went down day of with Jess. Posted his best result of the season in the Minnesota series and solidifying his second place overall in the series. Nice job Jake.

Out for a paddle on Little Sugarbush with Jack exploring Bullhead bay.

Request for change of roommates. Bless Jonell's heart for stepping up to the task.

Headed west on Tuesday for US MTB Championships at Sun Valley
Stopped outside Miles City, hitting one of those roads you always think would be fun to check out. Good time to spin out the car legs and open up the legs with a few 1-2 minute jumps. The road didn't go up very far but with the head wind ripping from the south, made the climb seem much longer and good speeds going back down making for fun times, especially with no one else on it.

After up on top, it looped around some old government type settlement with concrete buildings but now abandoned and no signage so figured all good.

Save a horse ride a bike. Cattle roaming around.
Beautiful badlands.
Just as Jake was setting down the bike....
...a snake slithered out of the brush!

Crossed the interstate to check out access road on other side.
Rolling through ID outside of Arco. Crazy steep road going up the mountain. Another one that would be fun to check out.

Crater of the Moon National monument. Jonell and I stopped here last time through this area 10 years ago and most interesting.
Staying in Hailey, about 20 minutes from Sun Valley. Little bit lower elevation. Checking out some back roads, climbing up in to the hills. Opted for the road bike on this ride which made for an interesting descent on the more loose and rocky sections. Jonell and I were here in the summer of 92, I think, and I did a mtb race on Galena pass which was one of the hardest races ever. Fully rigid ride rolling over basketball size boulders on a 15 mile loop x 2. The area has grown big time but still has a small town mountain feel with friendly people and more openness compared to CO. Racing starts Friday for Jake with the xc and he is also doing the short track and Super D on Sunday.

2011-07-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday late morning I had dental in Park Rapids so I left a little earlier to check out a area I had never been to before. I have driven by the Smoky Hills 100's of times but never thought there was much trail action until I looked closer on google maps off my phone earlier this Spring. About 25-30 minutes from Maplelag to the point I parked.

I pulled off of the winding 225 and parked. Headed west up the north smoky hills rd.
The deer flies were absolutely brutal. Earlier in the week I rode a couple hours on the gravel and forest roads around Maplelag, mainly the Mary Yellowhead trail, and the deer flies were bad but not biting. Here they were biting. Hard. I was going to stick to the road in Smoky but when I saw some sweet quad trails off to the side, I could not resist.
The atv's have made some natural berms and the downhills were fun and pretty technical with washouts.

I explored some other more open non forest road trails and on mud hole saw fresh bear track.
Another sweeping downhill. There is some pretty good elevation change.

From the Ponsford prairie, you can see the hills and fire tower nicely from 225. After the ride I stopped by Osage beach and jumped in the Straight lake. Water bit cooler than other lakes and felt good to take the edge off the 50 or so bites. Couple left quarter size bruises. Hopefully a cold snap comes to slow those things down as travel in the woods is interesting right now. Anyways, definitely will head back here when the bugs clear out knowing there are a lot more trails to check out and how close it is.

2011-07-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

Keeping tradition alive, we took the short trip north for the Fourth of July long weekend to the Garden cottages or "the lake". Basically it was about as good as it gets for a holiday weekend. Non stop action with no trips to the emergency room. The weather was perfect for lake and land activities. It's hard to keep the photo posting limited with so much going on but managed to narrow down to around 20 among 250 taken.
The remaining gang Monday afternoon for the archive photo.

Grilling bobs over the fire Saturday night.

"This is sweet, now we don't have to lift anything and spill" No doubt.

Baseball once again the land activity of choice although Jens does his best soccer drama injury.

Like previous blog entries have to post a pick of the Farmer's daughter fishing lure/spoon to keep the stats running high. Always have to check to see if getting used by Uncle Ryan and Grandpa Rodney and the real reason they do so well catching walleyes.
Another photo to keep the stats running high.
"Jens, I'll give you a quarter if you eat the fish head"

Sunday morning three hours of sugar coated photo taking.
Mary Poppins doing a nice job keeping sun out where needed.

Like I said, to make it through four days with no trips to the ER, all good.
Jake and I went out for a couple rides on the favorite routes nearby. There is a record, bumper hatch of deer flies this year in nw MN and reason to take helmet off for short while and remove the ones camped out sucking blood. The Norris road is always a blast with a rolling climb of 500ft elevation gain over 10 miles than coming back for some high speeds. Monday morning we did step intervals which was a good way to drop some of the deer flies.
I'll admit, I have the lowest iq in the bunch but I was left scratching my head what was proper and not proper when I saw, what I thought was burnable, mixed in with the cans and bottles which shouldn't of been in there?!?

Sunday and Monday the wind was blowing nicely and Uncle Ryan got the hobey cat ready.
Out for a cruise with Uncle TJ.
Growing up we had a small sailboat and it was good fun. Nothing like catching the wind and slicing through the water. We came back in just as the boat parade was getting assembled and the wind was ripping good. Managed to land without taking the below contingent and the neighbors.
Most of the gang dressed up Hawaiian style for the boat parade waving ol glory nicely.
The first time I saw the monkey doll 15-20 years ago, it stranged me out. Getting toooo close to yoda dog. What happens in the red cabin stays in the red cabin?
Endurance.

The request for Church basement dinner for fourth of July meal delivered nicely by Grandma Judy with tater tot hot dish, macroni hot dish and meat and potato hot dish. "Grandma, did you make the tater tots" Coming from the 18 yr old no less. Special rhubarb crunch made which was much appreciated.
Jake's girlfriend Jess was digging the red jello.
The igniters of the evening fireworks not the only ones keeping eye on the coming storm.

"Where are my flip flops?"

Tuesday morning trip home delayed by perfect conditions for skiing and absolutely gorgeous morning on the lake. Everyone in our family went out at least twice including Jonell and I. Still able to get up on one and Jonell out skied us all.

This clip should of been up earlier in the sequence but google having its way. Saturday night Pinehurst resort rocking with "Mahonmen's favorite band, Generic" The clip doesn't do justice but those that were there easily reminded. Ranks up with Ugly Stick that used to rock the corner known as Kirby's in Moorhead. I thought after the second set Grandpa Rodney was getting up to see if they had CD's for sell but he was hightailing for the door. Good times.

2011-06-30T15:44:00.000-07:00

This week when I was writing the Midwest MTB report, I noticed the long time mtb classic Thunderdown in the Underdown was taking place this weekend. I ran down to the t-shirt closet and amazingly found the shirt from 1991 when Jonell and I went there.

This race holds good memories as it was the first race Jonell ever went to with me. Before I picked her up, it was also the first time her parents met me. I am sure they thought they were never going to see her again as I had the bandanna thing going and rolled over in a "rez rocket" explaining the roads I took to get to Park Rapids from Maplelag and Jonell's day saying "you don't know what the hell you are talking about" It's all good because things turned out totally awesome. I hope to return to Irma one day.

I looked for results from the race but couldn't find any. So instead I posted results from the High Plains shootout (which I don't have a shirt from) and again enjoy looking at the names. (click on the photo for better viewing) I was going to school at Concordia at the the time, hence the hometown Moorhead. Probably the most interesting to me is my friend Scott Olson from DL who went over with me for the race and always some good times when Scott moving the wheels.

If you think I will part with my signed letter from Dag Selander, forget it.

2011-06-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

A close call with a bald eagle last night, coming home from the cities, but we are still alive. I prefer to call the day longest with light like the Swedes and Finns, Midsummer! Like the mailman said last week, if I have to wear a sweatshirt 5 days out of the week, I am just fine with that. With school being out for over a month, summer has been full force, regardless if the weather feels like it or not. We have been enjoying the days long with light late enjoying time outside as much as possible. We have scaled back on the activities this year, no soccer, no baseball, no swim lessons, having fun in the back yard. The kids keeping busy with things they like most.

Jake continues to have an excellent start to the mtb racing season and enjoying spending time with his girlfriend Jess. Previous weekend Jake and I went down to Afton Alps ski area where he took his second top five finish as a expert, racing in the heat for over two hours. That time racing is too long for preparing what should be shorter races on the National scene but we have adjusted the training accordingly, doing more motorpacing this year and some hill work on the area big hills. Having races near 2 hours does not make fast mountain bikers and a reason why the Euros are "fast". The world cups in Euro and the Swiss series races which have some of the top riders in the world, are sometimes only a hour and the battle for position is elbow to elbow, all out racing all the time. Fast racing makes fast racers! Anyways, Jonell, Jess and Jake hit up the big National race in Wisconsin this past weekend and he tallied a top five finish in his age group. The top finishers were outside of the Midwest coming from CA, and TX. Great course and excellent organization and race time right around 1 1/2 hours which was good. Sunday Jake did the double hitting the sweet course in Red Wing at Memorial Park. One of the reasons to come back was for the course. After a solid start, racing the day before caught up a bit but hung on over a solid field to take 6th. The next big race will be Nationals in Idaho and focusing on speed the next few weeks.
Jens has pretty much been Jens. DL ran a fantastic hockey camp last week and both he and Jon had a great time. One more hockey tourney this summer for Jens in late July.
Jack was at bible camp last week, meeting lots of friends and having a great time. Jack will be going to Italian camp for two weeks later this summer. He went one week last year and had a blast and is up for going for two this time around.
Last weekend Jon played in the International Cup with the CanAm team he plays with. They were a little overmatched to the other teams as they outscored the teams 75-2 en route to taking the championship. The first game was 32-0!! Never seen anything like it. Overall the tourney was interesting....but all good. Two more tournaments in August in tough tournaments will be good. He really enjoys playing on this team, especially with the Canadian players. Half the team is from mostly southern Ontario and the other half are northern MN kids. Jon finished up his summer hockey season with the Moorhead based team last weekend. They didn't have the won/loss record like the previous season but they played some tough competetion and the bottom line, they had fun and the kids have made a close bond with each other.
On the way home we stopped in Elk River for some eats (Jonell also got carded for the third time this year) and checked out the steady flowing Mississippi. Back on the road all good until near Verndale, a bald eagle flew up from the road eating some roadkill and hit the wind shield. Amazingly, the window was fine but the eagle not so good. Called it in and dnr came. They called me back 45 minutes later to report the eagle looked okay and will recover in a recovery center.

2011-06-10T14:57:00.000-07:00

This past week was a mini family reunion with my sister, her four boys, my aunt and uncle (Ginger and Stan), cousin Amy and Uncle Dewey visiting this week. Always good times.

All the cousins at the lake jump. With a nice dry heat earlier this week, the lake jumping fired up in full force and with lake temps still quite cool, the water felt great on the hot days.

Four on four football. I think Jess is in there somewhere mixing it up.
We are still holding out on any motorized action on our lake and it has been very quiet so far this summer. Good to see them going out for a paddle.
More swim time.
The gang for evening deck fire and smores.
B ball under the lights. Next morning some stiff muscles.

Jon getting chopped after Jake started. Jonell waited to finish until I got home. Some good laughs for sure.

Out at Ice Cracking one night and coming home, four kittens at end of driveway. Only able to locate 2 at first but next night found the other two and we found homes for them. Noticed Maplelag sign missing when looking for kittens. Not sure if this was supposed to be a trade. We need to talk if you are reading.

Lake jump action. Jon in middle of near 360.

Jake getting the 360 thing down.
Ethan Brekke out for the first time this year and going big like always.
Last year I never went off. Earlier in the week did my first two jumps and did a few more couple days later. Can't throw it down like the boys but by end of summer goal is to stick a 360.
Jess going off for first time.
Nephew Marco off for first time.

Celebrating Jake's 18th with fam and friends. Fun times!

2011-06-07T23:30:00.000-07:00

Friday I had to run Jens to town and take care of a few other errands. I had a rare urge to stop at a garage sell. I never stop at those.

I found this square glass vase. Cost $1. Jens said he thought it was going to be $50. The night before Jens, Jonell and I raced from the Great Northern Cabin to our house with bicycle. Jens said I was going to win, than him than Jonell. Jonell pulled off the upset, Jens nipped me for second. We gave the glass vase to her as her prize.

Past weekend concluded the last wedding weekend of the Spring. Ran short in housekeeping department but Jon stepped up to the plate and logged some full days and even put time in the kitchen washing dishes and serving. Nicely done Jon.

Jack and I were hauling wood for the bonfire and found the first salamander of the year.
Jonell putting her vase to use over the weekend.
We live in the country and therefore it is important to keep doors shut. A bat snuck in to the lodge late Saturday night/Sunday morning and security officer Ron was able to direct it down the stairs and to the basement. Jens and I took over while Ron watched and after 25 swings or so, Jens finally knocked it down and I discarded it proper in a reasonable and prudent matter. After that, Jens fell asleep on one of the couches in the lodge. The open space below the DL sign is where the Callaway sign will go I am thinking.
Jake raced the second race in the Minnesota series on Sunday at Mt Kato ski area. He went down the day before with his girlfriend Jess, staying in the southern metro with his aunt and uncle. Jake had some good pre-race drama the morning of. Lost his wallet, spilled some drink, blew the front tubular out before race start and than some guys found his wallet with cash gone and gave it to Matt Horner I am told. Despite the helter skelter in the am, had a solid race, posting a 6th place finish among a very strong, stacked Elite field. Said he felt great as the race developed and the hardtail 26 worked perfect. To me this is the bike of choice for the Midwest if you are a comfortable with your descending skills. Last Sunday we did hill work on the hills I have been doing up/vertical workouts on for 21 years. It was at the tail end of the wedding weekend and I was pretty wiped to begin with. Took me all week to recover from that workout. There is a 5-6 minute climb that is harder than anything in the series and Jake said the hills at Kato were nothing compared to that climb on Sunday. Hitting it again Thursday to prep for Afton and Subaru Cup.

2011-06-02T22:37:00.000-07:00

I didn't know much about the new Cuyuna mountain bike trail until last summer Dan and Doug Swanson tweeted some photos of this crazy track they were working on and Dan sent a report in October for the mtb report. I put in on the list to hit this Spring as soon as things opened up. It was closed up until last week, unless you helped work on the trail and a pass was granted. Last week they opened up the Inset B unit which was about 14 miles of trail. Looking at the calendar and the busy schedule on tap for the summer, I knew this week was the time to go. We went over Wed morning and rode everything that was open and hitting the really fun stuff a couple of times. I will be doing a full report with more photos in next weeks mtb report on skinnyski but here are a few highlights.

There are berms everywhere. Its like a jacked up mountain bike trail with dirt jump, pump track features. It's totally different than what we ride here at and around Maplelag but super fun stuff.

A few bridges scattered here and there. Most of the time I was following Jake's wheel and he was hitting everything with no hesitation but the trail is so well built there are no worries what follows.

If you let things go on the downhill, you catch a little air without doing anything. Someone like Jake catches a lot of air and a couple times he was inches away from clipping a sapling but of course no big deal to him. The hardtails were perfect as there isn't anything real technical and it is all hard packed and powerbuffed.
More berm action.
Lot of great views at the top. The last downhill was so much fun. We went down the same way we came up and I wondered why there were these berms coming up but going down, we realized why. Mix in some continuous pumping, a bluebird day and perfect temps, couldn't of been a better day. Hope to get back there when everything opens up. Thinking a cool September day would be nice.

2011-05-31T18:51:00.001-07:00

Still feeling good about the Callaway sign. Personally, hard to top last post.

Memorial day service at DL City Park flanked by the DL middle school marching band. Mayor Matt Brenk: "Detroit Lakes and Becker county don't use Memorial day to mark the first day of summer, we use it to honor and recognize our veterans".

Another great wedding weekend leading in to the Memorial day.

Frying the fry bread.

Marching the march.
Jessica Stelter padre waving the MN flag nicely.

Memorial day walleye making way to fish taco. Thanks uncle Ryan.
Local goslings catching the draft.

Dock in and camp Jay and Jonell begins.

2011-05-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

If you have passed through Callaway coming from the south, you might have noticed the above sign. I have stopped at the sign times before to take photos of the kids with cousins etc. (can't seem to find any) etc. because I think it is a great sign. It really describes what is going on in the amazing town of Callaway. The other week they put up a new sign and noticed the old one was laying in the ditch. I called the person who covers ten titles about acquiring the sign and he said no problem, he was set to trash it!

Jake and I went over with the green truck to load proper.

Than unloading with help from Scott because the thing was heavy. Couple lag bolts holding it on to two posts to cut than will find a place on the wall in the lodge at Maplelag. Thanks City of Callaway.

2011-05-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had the first wedding of the Spring/Summer. The first of three in a row for this Spring. We can only do wedding weekends for certain weekends out of the year with Concordia Language camps running most of June, July and August. When we do wedding weekends, we handle everything from all the food/catering, lodging, set up, clean up, planning etc. Jonell does an amazing, incredible job with the planning and with close to 80 weddings the last 11 years, the experience comes in handy along with a great staff. Pretty much have to plan a 48 hour shift to keep the wheels moving proper. One reason why I have no interest in 24 hour/enduro mtb events.

Friday morning in town by 530 to send Jack off to the cities for a field trip to the zoo, fort Snelling, Science Museum, and one other stop in Minneapolis. Jack said it was a fun trip with neat stops but the best part was the bus ride! The northern kids are always going south for field trips and I wonder why city kids don't go north for field trips. I know Itasca and some other spots get hit but there is lot to see here they don't teach in school. Ha!

Jonell really enjoys planning the weddings and the couples are always great to work with. It is pretty much a year round process, planning and meeting with the brides pretty much once a week the entire year with weddings booked up to three years out. Jonell goes the distance for sure and was off to the cities today to hand select the flowers for this coming weekend at a warehouse that supplies Maplelag during the year and get some ideas from some folks there. It is crazy what people are charging for wedding services and Jonell has learned how to save everyone money by doing it herself.
Jon was in the cities for a hockey tourney with his CanAm team and Jake at the MNMBS bike race with Jess. Jens back home waving the flag and helping out in the dish room. He punched in just like everyone else every time he came to help out. Every kid should wash dishes for a summer camp in my opinion.
Jake and Jess stopped by to catch Jon's Saturday afternoon game. Meant alot to Jon and his parents. The Mehnert family from Moorhead had Jon for three nights and big thank you to them for taking him down and bringing him back.

When I went outside Sunday morning, I knew Jake had fun, like he said, with his bike plastered in mud. No, not good for bike parts but bike came through pretty good. Less moving parts with a hardtail. Solid result with top 10 finish at 8th place after dangling at the front in top 5, going out Bjorn Dailie style the first few laps. Form starting to come around and gearing up for WORS cup and US Natz with top priority races.

You would think with all the good times going on in the dance room, it would be someone else other than my mom having to go to the ER at 2am in the morning. Heading down from the lodge,....to make a story short....she hit her head and put a big gash on her forehead that required a stitching of the muscle before doing the skin. Jonell took her in and back at 430 to catch a couple hours of sleep before finishing out the weekend.
Not good form to put photo of someone laying in hospital bed like that so better shot of my mom cruising the crust in March. Doing fine this week and pretty darn lucky.

2011-05-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

Took rain and office time to get up to speed. Nice weather allowing projects to get done outside and with school wrapping up, things are jammed pack. It's been fun to look back over the years, keeping this online photo album going with commentary called a blog. Probably gets Christmas cardlike from time to time but good fun to go back and look back at for the family. Keeps the motivation to try and keep this current. Anyways,....

Last Thursday up at Paramount Sports in Fargo while Jon at hockey. Paramount one of the alliances with the Maplelag team. Dave and Craig getting the ride dialed in. Got a pair of new rims set up with tubulars last fall and finally got them going. So far they have been great. Full report after some miles logged in the dirt. Dave was drilling out the brake for a custom mount. These guys are awesome. Check em' out for your cycling needs.

Thursday night up to Grand Forks. Another tourney for Jon with opening game at the Ralph Friday morning. Pretty incredible facility to play for 13 and 14 year olds. Incredible arena but the ice was soft and sluggish due to high humidity. Same boat for all the kids.

Friday afternoon back home to take care of some chores than back on the road with Jack, Jake and Maplelag teamer Lars Ellefson to race the Cable Classic. On the sidelines with Jack taking pics and doing feeds. Fun to watch the race and chat with folks.
Ran in to Eve Stein for the first time. If you are a follower of trail reports on skinnyski, you might recognize her name. Eve is a fellow skier that loves to hit the trails whenever possible and report about it. Eve won a gift certificate to Maplelag but I might have a hard time getting her over here since she said "why would I want to ski anywhere else when it is so good in Duluth".
It was cold and raw on race day but the boys did great and a nice lunch at the pizza shop across the finish line capped off a great morning.
Always good with hockey and mountain biking on the plate and anytime you can add skiing and do all three, it doesn't get much better. When we came across the bridge we were all eying the remaining snow at Spirit mountain. It looked like the coverage was on the terrain park and I am sure some turns could of been carved but the skis were not along unfortunately.

Jonell up to Grand Forks with Jens for rest of weekend and broke down 10 miles out of Grand Forks. Meant a ride in the trucker which Jens thought was fun. Jonell said the Rydell dealership up there went above and beyond to get the wheels moving again so big thanks to those folks.

Sunday morning I went back up to catch the last game. On our way home we stopped at the Sundal church near Gary to check the grave site of Jonell's grandma and grandpa. There were two ladies there from Hawley having lunch on the step. Time stands still around here other than the congregation is getting older and no new people coming in which means no more meatball dinner in the Fall. Huge bummer.
Sunday evening gorgeous weather. Out o the woods with Jon, Jack and Jens to do some trail work and enjoy the nice night.

Like I said before, amazing cheap entertainment with water, rocks, and woods. Couple dogs to the mix, bonus.

2011-05-12T11:02:00.000-07:00

Last week we planted around 1000 trees at Maplelag. Like we have the past 5 years, the mother/daughter team of Kira and Ann Reoh has come to help plant. Since my parents moved here, we have planted over 100,000 pine seedlings. Since I was 12 or 13, I have been planting in the Spring and it is pretty neat to see the trees that have skyrocketed to grow 20-30 feet high from seedlings around 6" high. The project they came from they planted 5000 trees. The project they were going to they were to plant 12,000 trees. On a good day, they can knock out 3000 and a good week around 13,000. That's a lot of trees. All the trees are mostly seedlings and hand planted with their "digger". The are from Missouri and travel around the Midwest. Always impressed by their work.

The mountain bike trails have finally dried up other than the low spots holding water. For the first time I am no longer taking the right line, the winter settling and what not as turned this in to a Mount Snow like feature.

The track has changed over the years with racing and riding. Some sections have widened out from people not wanting to ride the rocks or roots. When possible, I try to restore the track to its original line and make it "harder". Everyone seems to be either riding a full sus or 29er, so it only makes sense, right? Ha!

The deer ticks are out in full force. I walked five minutes in the woods and had 3 on me. It has been two years now since I was bit by a tick that carried Lyme. (Assuming it was the tick I took off May of 2009, might have been previous summer but symptoms didn't show up until June of 2009) I definitely have been feeling better than I have since picking up the "disease". I have been riding a lot more, logging some of the longest and hardest rides since 09. Nothing has been over 2 hours really and up to 1 hour of race pace. Not sure if and when I might race this summer. Just glade to be riding and feeling more like normal and not waking up in the middle of the night wondering if I am going to make it to the morning. The first few months were brutal. It is Jake's last year of racing JRs so number one objective on the racing front is to provide as much support as possible and be a good training partner when we can ride together. Plus keeping dibs on the team has been fun and proud and appreciative everyone waving the flag.
Found a dead porcupine near the Twin Lakes singletrack last week. Not sure how it died. Either it was shot, diseased or poisoned by Steve Gromatka when he was here during winter break.
The adapted pets. Sometimes it is a three ring circus with these yardbirds, plus two collies. Mostly all good.

The crazy warm day on Tuesday really kicked Spring in to gear. All the migrating little birds came in with full force and they are fun to watch at the feeders. With the loons calling regularly at night and the morning and the birds chirping full blast, pretty much awesome.

2011-05-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

Weekend kept busy with Prom and hockey in Fargo.
And of course Mother's Day on Sunday. Jonell spent Sunday like most other days of the week, being an awesome mom to the boys. We hosted "post prom" at Maplelag for a planned 11 couples. Up til 3:30am than up again at 730 to make breakfast for the gang. It was all good with the night ending safely with a great group of kids.

Jake and Jess.
Jack had a friend over the weekend and they found some baby painted turtles. The turtles made a presence last week enjoying the warm sun on fallen logs in a slough.

2011-05-06T09:21:00.001-07:00

The lake level this year is pretty much all time record high. We went in to the winter with high water tables and a 100" of snowfall keeping moisture levels up there.

Ice was off one week ago today and always nice when the ice is off. Especially the calm days.

The woods are flooded like I have never seen. Last year the above area was bone dry. The woods ducks are thick in the forest and I almost hate going through as they get scared away and probably reluctant to nest.

This pond behind our house feeds the creek that runs through the Maplelag property. It has been running full steam since the snow started to melt.
The beavers plugged the opening but I have been in a daily battle with them keeping it open trying to drop the level down as so many other sloughs feed in to this.
Where Carlos gets his energy I guess!

2011-05-02T09:47:00.001-07:00

Jon had a tourney in Duluth over the weekend. Ended up being just Jon and I going over since Jens had a tourney in St Cloud and Jonell took him there. Jake and Jack back home on resort chores.

Friday there were two games so not much time to enjoy the nice day but we got out for a bike and blade along the waterfront in between contests.

Jon played in a couple arenas haven't been in to before. Like checking out new arenas. Need to get the arena guide book and start a check off. Also made it up to Lester park early Saturday for a mtb ride before the all day soaking rain moved in. Lester is host to the MNMBS race, the Great Hawk chase. Little bit of light drizzle, 42 degrees and mostly tacky track with just a few muddy spots. Perfect riding. There were two outside rinks I didn't notice when there for the mtb race last year. Jon also played in Hermantown and there was 4 outside rinks there. Has to be the city with the most maintained outside rinks in the country. If not, please comment. Add the strong Duluth East and Hermantown programs and UMD national championship, fair to say hockey town/area USA right now.The team Jon was playing with was undefeated last year and went to Duluth to play in stronger tourney. Being the first tourney of the spring/summer season for them against higher caliber teams was a big challenge but they finished strong with a third place finish and a most exciting final game. Down by 2 with 1:29 left, they scored twice than went to ot and won. They were short a coach so I ran the door in the box keeping the forwards moving which was fun and more exciting being closer to the action. Kinda like going to a bike or ski race where I can warm up, cool down (and back in the day, race) with Jake.
Every rink I go to, I try to shoot the breeze with the zamboni driver and pick their brain on the ice. Couple kids from one of the teams was yelling "Santa" when he was zoooming by, one of the boni drivers from Hermantown. Fun stuff. He was having issue with the sudden warm up on Friday which created warmer ice and going pretty heavy with the water in the back so the ice wasn't setting up too quick. Back at Hermantown on Sunday early morning and he had it dialed in and the ice was perfect. If you aren't familiar with hockey, you might think all the sheets of ice are the same with the controlled environment. But really it is the complete opposite. Almost every arena has different ice. Dew points, humidity, air temp, ice temp, floor temp, and the zamboni operator operating the controls some of the factors determining the surface players skate on. I still remember from when I played the rinks that had great fast ice and the rinks that felt like you were skating in honey. One of the first things I ask Jon is how the ice was.
Steep, tight and tech section at Lester. Roots and rocks a little slippery. Amity creek running next to. Fun ride.
High point with Lake Superior in background.
The COGGS group and other parties have done a great job building and establishing a super fun trail. The trail sees a lot of hiker traffic as well. The asphalt road that was super bumpy last year has been re-paved so if you blew out your ball joints driving up there last year, no worries, smooth ride now.
Sunday morning before heading back, called home and Jack and Jake reported snow on the ground and Jake was out skiing. Got home early afternoon so snuck out for a ride to check out the scene. You would think the track would be muddy and greasy but the air was dry and the track was frost and mostly leaf free making for a super fun ride. Decided to wait until May 2nd to try and ski because it was below freezing and the snow wasn't going to melt over night.

Before today, May 1st was the latest I have skied at Maplelag. This makes 8 months in a row on the calendar we have had snow on the ground at some point. What a wild run. I want to see things green up and be "nice" as much as the next person but when you work and live at a cross country ski resort, you have to embrace the snow anytime of the year and ski on it whenever possible, is my opinion.

2011-04-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

Easter vacation/spring break with the kids saw a return trip to Red Lodge, MT. We booked a place to stay in January not knowing the ski area would be closed during Easter. We had a blast last year in Red Lodge and has become my favorite mountain town out west. No ego, super friendly people and commercialism keeping at bay. We went out despite the hill being closed since family only time doesn't happen to often. We were very fortunate to go. We brought the jibskate skis, bikes, rollerblades, hockey sticks, footballs, basketballs, nerf swords/mauls, to keep the wheels moving and books and movies to chillax. Jake and I explored some roads outside of Red Lodge including the Beartooth highway. Even though we didn't do any alpine skiing it was a great trip, good memories and Easter Sunday was pretty much a perfect day. Sunday we went to a local church in Red Lodge, had brunch than spent the rest of the day on Beartooth highway from the point it was closed up to the point it was snow covered.

Jens and Jon, deck hockey.
Heading up Beartooth highway via blades and bikes Easter Sunday. I thought Sunday there would be a bunch of people from the closure up to maybe the first switchback but we were the only ones. Pretty neat to be on a closed highway and not worry about cars zipping around. The Beartooth highway is one of the most beautiful highways in the United States. We stopped at the local museum one day that had a nice display about how the highway was made.
When we got to the first switchback, Jake and I rode up to the point the road became completely snow covered. It was about five miles from the closure. There was hardly any wind, sun was blasting in full force. A incredible day in the high country for spring considering the weather that moves through this time of year.
Snow removal equipment on rest for the weekend away from any avalanche chutes.

At the point the pavement met the snow, there was a PistenBully 200 with just a front end blade. It looked like they used it for making a path so the bigger snow removal equipment would know where to go. Fun job.
Taking a break before heading back down.

Jonell was a trooper for walking over three miles up the road when we all had wheels. Said it wasn't going to be fair going down. Took care of that proper.
Just down from the closure, I eyed a nice slope and we stopped to hike up it and ski and slide down.
Checking out the best line. There was 2-3" of nice tranformed snow on top of a solid base of 1-3 feet and pretty much perfect skiing. The jib skates don't have much beef to them which is nice for making quick turns but if the snow gets cruddy, it's tough to turn. The ideal surface made for real nice skiing.
Jake carving it up. Jonell watching from the car below.
Jon and Jens sliding down.

Jack having a go.
Proud of the boys for burning up that slope nicely.
Before we rolled out of town, we stopped at the Red Lodge Cafe to get filled before the journey home. The pancakes were huge. Jack usually can put the cakes down no problem but he met his match on this one. Reminded me of the ones at the old Erie Jr in DL.
Love the drive back across the plains. There was a area along 94 near Jamestown that was flooded out maybe 10 years back and the trees died. There were 100's of cormorants sitting in the tops when we when by and the setting sun created an interesting scene. Great photo Jonell!

2011-04-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

Jonell and I went out for a walk in the woods Thursday night, enjoying the near full moon lighting up the forest floor. Of course Carlos was along zipping all over the place. 10 minutes and no Carlos. I thought he caught our scent and maybe doubled back but soon enough he comes blasting by. Running in front of us he was dragging his mouth and I knew he got into some trouble.

He discovered a baby porcupine and probably had a couple hundred small quills inside and outside his mouth. He wasn't crying like some dogs have done in the past but obvious in a lot of discomfort. He was able to settle down and sleep so we waited til the morning to take him in. We would normally just take them out but pretty much impossible being inside his mouth. Poor guy.
Past weekend down in the cities again for hockey tourney and Jack had his Destination Imagination state competition (click her for DL article). Jack's team didn't qualify for the national competition but they had a fun day and did a great job. Saturday morning waking up to some beautiful snow. Staying at relatives which was nice. Checked out a local bike path that had some singletrack shooting off to the side. Followed it around this small lake that went parallel to a rolling power line. Not very long but a couple times back and forth just the right amount of fix to begin the day. Surface was perfect. Not muddy. There was more snow in Rosemount than northern suburbs.
Took Jens and nephews Grant and Garrett to a playground before one of the games. Didn't see anyone outside enjoying the beautiful day. Had to stay off this because I wasn't sure what the guidelines were. Thanks Val and Tj for having us and the hospitality. Very nice.
Last game was at the Bloomington Ice Gardens. They have some nice posters of different types of skate sharpening and all the state qualifying teams from years past. I wanted to take a picture of 1983 with Jon next to it because the hockey hair on each player was absolutely classic but we bolted out after the game.
Jens and Jack piano recital. Jonell covering bases on Sunday nicely. Well done Jonell.
Jake was able to ski over the weekend after 5" of new snow Friday night. Monday early afternoon still holding on to snow and out for another April ski. Not saying it is going to be the last because it looks like more coming!

2011-04-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

Saturday Jake was able to get out for a last ski on a continuous 4km loop. Jonell and I came home late Sunday night and figured there would be enough snow to ski Monday one last time. When I went to check things out, it was pretty much toast. There was enough on Suicide Hill so I waited until Tuesday after getting caught up around the lodge and what not to log one last ski in the morning, going up and down Suicide.

Ending how we started. Amazing ski season, can't remember this many skiable days from October to April in quite some time.

Rain on Sunday, warm days and non freezing nights transformed the trails to spring. Total change in just one week. Seems typical now the last five years. Thursday morning temps in the 20's froze everything done, making for a small window early in the morning to ride the mountain bike course. Ski trails smooth, fast and hard from pre winter season prep.
Singletrack in great shape considering mid April. Expected more downed trees but just a couple. Having said that, sure they will fall now. All good.
The rain on Sunday and rapid melt raised the lake level 11". I have never seen the water in Bullhead bay as high as it is now. Just one short section of singletrack under water. The dog in the picture is Odee. Not a Richards dog, a visiting dog. It was walking on the fresh ice from the morning and couldn't believe he didn't fall through.
Last year we did a short notice race and Maplelag MTB team training camp the end of April but don't think it will happen this year with Easter late and weekends tied up early May. There might be a slight chance on a Sunday for the race but will be very last minute. Will keep anyone interested posted.
This week at Maplelag we had a group that did tracking training. Identifying footsteps and what not to catch the crooks and bad guys. Deb had to fill a plastic baggie of sugar for cocaine and a bag of oregano for marijuana. They were glad to see the snow gone because snow would of made things to easy. Seems obvious but one of the guys from down south said they had a shot of snow and guess the robber didn't think about leaving tracks and they followed his steps right to his hiding spot. Lot of other interesting stories from the field, guns, shooting, etc. wow.

2011-04-10T23:50:00.000-07:00

The past week Jonell and I went down south to Santa Fe and Taos New Mexico. We have gone to Mexico maybe the last 10 years but decided to try something different this year. The past few times to Mexico has been a little unsettling and the heat last year in Mexico was too much for me coming from the coolness of MN. From the border states of the south, we decided on NM. Didn't really do much research but thought would be a fun area to check out.

The town sits at 7000ft and the winters are cold with some snow that will melt off but sticks in the high country of course. The Santa Fe alpine area is 16 miles away and the base is 10k and high point over 12k. It wasn't very green when we were there but many trees and some flowers were starting to bloom. The weather was very pleasant most days. The sun is intense this time of year and even though the temp was in the mid 60's, you could sit poolside in a suit. Personally, I thought the weather was perfect. One morning Jonell got a little sunburn and that afternoon it clouded over and was looking for a coat and boots!

Driving from ABQ to SF. The ranch definitely kicked some ass to whoever lived here.
Similar geological features as the Badlands of ND.

The eating and restaurants probably top of the list. Unbelievable amount of food options. Top of the list is the Shed. Authentic New Mexican food. Very distinct flavors.
I brought the mountain bike along and got out every morning for a hour or two. There is a trail system called Dale Ball trails that features around 30 miles of singletrack. Pretty awesome for being a few miles out of town. First week really riding so no big rides. Altitude got me a bit the second day after climbing up to 7800ft but fine rest of the time. I posted a report on the riding on the Maplelag team site with more photos. All in all the riding was much better than I expected. The trails were much more technical than I expected and the scenery was beautiful.
Jonell checking out some rabbit and fox in a non PETA friendly store.
New Mexican smores.

Senor Diego.
Santa Fe all the way.
Jonell looked for a pair of cowboy boots for Jake since his girlfriend is a cowgirl and well but Santa Fe maybe not the best place.
The mysterious stairwell.

Next to the oldest church structure in the USA is the oldest house in USA. Foundation going back to 1210!

Fun city, great time just being with Jonell. Definitely would go back here. Feel like we only scratched the surface on the restaurants and the riding.