Jay Richards

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!