When I was a teenager we had a long reasonable steep hill behind my parent’s house infrequently used by snowmobiles. They cruised it just enough that we had a packed run that could be run for ~1 mile if one was brave enough to tack on the section that went through the woods and came out into the fields. After school my brother, my buddy Albert and I would convene at our house and select an operable runner sled. We could make one or two runs a night – as the walk up was time consuming and tiring. We generally had to steer by dragging our feet and tore up our boots in the process. Frequently the sled runs turned into bumper-sleds and invariable one or more sled had to undergo repairs after our runs.

The fastest sled was an old Flexible Flyer that was owned by my father when he was a kid. It received so much use that the concave runners were worn convex. It didn’t steer well, but it would out run the rest of the sleds. I still have the sled – with several replacement boards.

We have a small hill, out by the barn, that gets made bigger by the snow piles pushed up by the snow plow. It is perfect for kids to sled on. Only now they use plastic sleds, but the idea is the same. Below Eric gets a push from Kathryn while Trey looks on.

Dakota invents her own sledding style.