Sledding in Rydal Pennsylvania - 12/5/02
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As I awoke this morning to find that snow was pouring out of the sky and school was canceled, one thing was on my mind. Sledding! Not only do I live near some of the biggest hills, the snow accumulation looked promising enough to provide some of the most extreme wipeouts possible with a sled. Thankfully, that turned out to be true.
At 3:00, my friend Jill came to my door. Unfortunately, they couldn't drive down my street since there was too much snow, so we had to hike up back to the car. By this time at least 5 or 6 inches had accumulated. I felt like it was in the Mid-West since after the pathetic winter of 2001/2002, I never expected to get this huge an amount of snow.
Once we got in the car, we had one destination. My friends Aunts house which resided on a massive hill. Although I hadnt been there before, I had heard plenty of stories from my friend Jill so I knew I was in for a good time.
As we pulled into the driveway, I gawked at the size of the house. I should be used to seeing massive houses considering the neighborhood I live in, but wow! It was very visually impressive. As we wandered around the back, my jaw dropped as my eyes found what was easily the most incredible sledding hill I have ever seen. And sledding would NOT be easy, seeing the many trees and bushes that would act as obstacles. I simply grinned and prepared my sled.
Well, I really didnt have a true sled. Seeing that my old rail one would practically sink considering the texture of the snow, I was using a tube! The tubes worked perfectly in the conditions, and provided some insane rides. Once we got settled in, our first order of business was to craft some paths for the tubes to travel down. While making one, I wildly careened halfway down the hill and crashed into a BIG bush! Only seconds after I crashed, I heard a big *whoosh*, my friend screaming, and felt her land right on top of me. Kinda kinky if you ask me, but that was really the last thing on my mind.
Eventually we formed a huge path all the way down that hill that went through bushes AND trees. My friends dad was at the bottom by the huge tree that we would go through. I think he was scared to go down it. Being the risk taker I am, I volunteered to go first (BIG mistake!) and began to careen down speeds at unimaginable speeds... At least, on a sled that is. Oh wait, I was on a tube..
3 quarters of the way down my friends dad screamed "Cmon Mark, I wont let you hit the tree!". Now why did he have to say that? The thought of seriously injuring myself (or worse, death) hadnt come to my mind until now... just great.. Anyway, I went right through the tree, inches from the trunk, flipped over and smacked my leg into a root. I was OK!! No sooner after I got my things together did my friend come rushing through the tree, over the roots, and right into me. So far we had crashed 2 times and counting!
If that wasnt bad enough, my friends 20 yr old brother careened down the hill as well, and instead of survivng the roots and sticks encountered after passing through the tree, they completely ripped open the tube, causing it to deflate right under him. All this and we had only been outside for less than 15 minutes.
After facing certain death, we thought it would be best that we create another path that was clear of any.. well.. life threatening obstacles. No sooner after that was said did we have a great path formed clear of any dangers! We were saved! Not only was it a great path, we gained enough confidence to form a huge "train" if you will, consisting of myself, my friend, her brother, dad, and dads girlfriend. 5 people, this would be crazy.
We linked ankles and soon we were off. Any faster and we would have probably broken the sound barrier. Snow was spraying into our faces, gloves and hats were flying, and I swear I saw baby jesus reaching out for me in the sky. Oh on, it was just the massive amounts of snow completely covering all of us.
Wow! After a couple "trains" we had enough. Jill and I for our last runs (mind you that after doing the seemingly safe trains, we decided to once again risk our lives) decided that we would both go down on one tube. Never have I had so much fun going down on a sled with someone else. We spun around, we were ejected off the tube (thanks to the jumps we made out of packed snow) and grasped each other so hard almost as if we grasped harder we wouldnt be hurt. Needless to say we did this MANY times.
2 hours, and countless numbers of crashes later (I belive we stopped at 5) it was time to go home where I would collapse on a couch in front of our wonderful wood stove. What a great way to start the Winter!
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"Mark, you have to try this! Its gross!"
I will never doubt Robb again...
*** This post was edited by Blitzjade on 12/5/2002. ***
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Loyal fan of Nolimits.
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stoogemanmoe
I still have my old Flexible Flyer, and we had it out all day yesterday. In a few minutes, we'll be out again today.
Everybody knows students love snow days, but let me tell you, teachers do, too.
*** This post was edited by scoobz on 12/6/2002. ***
The best sled me, and my friend ever had was a refrigierator door!, we where walking home, after having a bad time with garbage can lids, then we saw the door, with a beam of light on it (not really), we took it into the park, and broke off the hadle via stick, and one of us jumping on it.We then draged it a hald mile tord the hills, by that time the snow was iced, and we said yey!, all the kids where watching as two 16yr olds (at the time) where going faster then their $30 tubes!, we had some fun, and we had some nasty falls two, such as me hitting my head on the ground which felt like I hit a rock!, we tumbeled on each other a few times, and then we turned around by mistake, and went down backwards,and every other direction, as we spun at like 20mph! (which is fast for sleding if you ask me).
Then when we where leaving she said one last time!, I said ok, but hurry up!, by that time there was no more snow, but pure ICE!, I said watch out you dont hit the trees!, she came down like a out of control crazy women, and at like 30mphs hour smacked into a tree that had to be about 60yrs old, so old its stump was like 3ft wide, and 100ft tall. At that moment, all you heard was her scream, the door slide sideways and as I screamed "Jump", she froze in fear, and hit that tree , so hard you heard the loudest bang!, like a car hit the tree, and the door nearly split in half, all the plastic inside cracked!, and the door was bent , the tree had a dent on it too, she then fell off the door life-less, and had her face in the snow for like 2mins, I screamed and she said she see the light, then she heard me. So I supose that was one of her 5 exit points in life (thats another story) In conclusion it is always that last time you want to do something!, and oh yea she had a huge bruise on her leg, like1ft long, and we had to beg the bus driver after walking a half mile in the park tord the main ave to let us on the bus for free when he asked why she showed him her leg, and told him what happen, and he said oh ok.
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