Sledding still fun 20 years later.

Prior to Christmas, I hadn’t gone sledding in more than 20 years. Since Christmas, I’ve sledded down a couple of hills, and I’m sure I’ll go down a lot more of them.
I went sledding as a kid all the time. My family lived in the country, so finding a hill was always easy. And since we didn’t have cable, the Internet or some of the other entertainment devices that are too common nowadays, my sister and I went sledding as often as possible to alleviate boredom.
Most of the time the hills were ordinary ones that offered little excitement. We spiced up our sledding adventures by going down the hill while standing on our sleds. Back then people said it was a weird form of skiing; now it’s called snowboarding. I’d like to think we were pioneers in the sport, but somehow I don’t think our backwoods adventures were what popularized it.
We also spiced up our adventures by sledding down wooded hills. Nothing spells genius like speeding down a hill in which you can come to a sudden stop because of a tree blocking your path.
We hit a few of these trees, never seriously, but we had a blast making paths that somehow avoided them. They were even more fun when we made jumps and other obstacles we had to maneuver around.
My sledding adventures ended when we moved to the city of Berlin. Although our backyard was one giant hill, it ended at the Fox River, so sledding down it was never an option. Plus, I got to an age where sledding was kid stuff; skateboarding, man, was the cool thing to do.
I never thought I’d go sledding again, until I had a son, Braden. He’s three now, a perfect age for sledding, and this Christmas he received two sleds. He doesn’t need two sleds, but his daddy needs at least one if he wants to go sledding.
The day after Christmas, at my wife’s parents lake house near Wautoma, we went sledding down their hill. The snow was deep, so I blazed a trail by sitting on one of the sleds and slowly forcing my way down the hill. Others went down after me, compacting the sledding run.
Braden had never gone sledding before, but he was ready and willing. Watching others do it, he was quick to tell us he wanted to go down by himself. We let him and he did so like a pro, laughing all the way down.
Since we only had two sleds for five people, I spent most of my time helping Braden back up the hill, taking pictures and capturing video, and allowing others to sled. That was until my wife asked for a loaf of bread we had left in our vehicle atop the hill. I grabbed the bread and decided to make a special delivery to her.
I turned the camera on me, got on the sled and filmed myself and the sled ride as I went down the hill. By then the hill was quick, and holding on to a loaf of bread and a camera made the ride even more thrilling. The resulting video would have been funny no matter what, but my crazy laugh as I went down the hill made it even funnier.
My sisters-in-law want me to post it on YouTube, but I don’t know how to do that, yet. So it will remain in our home collection until one of them can post it for me.
We went sledding the following day, and then Braden went with his aunt and her boyfriend the next day on a mega-hill in Richland Center. My outdoor clothing was wet from the previous two days of sledding, so I didn’t go down this hill.
My wife, Braden and I went sledding at Iverson Park this past weekend. It’s nice knowing opportunities like this exist for city folk, especially at such a nice facility. Our day ended prematurely, as Braden decided he wanted to go down the toboggan run. We told him no, as it was busy and he seems a little young for it. He had a hyper-fit and attempted to get in line as we told him no. We don’t tolerate that type of behavior, so we took him home. I did appreciate his willingness to go down what he called a “scary ride,” and it makes me look forward to the day we can go on such rides at theme parks like Great America.
You won’t catch me on a ski hill, though. I attempted the sport a few years ago and hated it. I am, after all, a snowboarding pioneer. Why would I want to go skiing?