Robbin's Farm Sledding Route

December 21st, 2024
kids, sledding, snow
There's a nice sledding hill a short drive from our house. It has an area with a gentler slope, where we would go when the kids were younger, but at this point the main attraction is a slope that drops ~60ft over ~400ft:

The big downside is that it's steep all the way down to a fence at the bottom. The town usually puts hay bales at the bottom, and while growing up I was told they were put there after too many kids died from hitting the fence, I can't find the news stories that I would expect to accompany any such deaths so I think that's an urban legend. The key to having a good time on this hill is to sled the right route:

10-foot contours

You pick up a lot of speed on the initial downhill, turn left to go parallel to the fence while continuing down the hill, and then shed your speed by turning uphill at the very end. I like to use my hands to steer and brake, with sturdy mittens—I don't know how people can tolerate using heels, with the amount of snow spray that kicks up.

Afterwards you walk back up the other side, following the essential etiquette of staying out of the sledding zone:

At this point Lily (10y) can do it herself; Anna (8y) still prefers to go with me. Before letting Lily go down alone (here, or any other slope where there's anything you could hit) I did have her show me she could reliably bail. And we don't let them use tubes, where it's hard to steer and you can end up going backwards.

(This park also has a great slide, source of the name "Big Slide Park", which has reopened after almost two years, a year behind what was originally planned.)

Comment via: facebook, mastodon, bluesky

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Effective Altruism: Taking Ideas Seriously

Disclaimer: For ease of writing, I say “effective altruism says this” or “effective altruists believe that.” In reality, effective altruism is a diverse movement, and many effective altruists believe different things.

via Thing of Things March 12, 2025

Frozen meals are actually great

I cook most of my meals and am pretty frugal. I do a lot of meal prep (cooking in bulk), so I don’t have to cook every day in order to have food. But sometimes I run out of my meal prep or just want something different, and don’t have energy to cook somet…

via Home March 7, 2025

Breakfast Over February Break

Over February break I made breakfast for me and Nora three days in a row. Normally, my dad makes me, Nora, and Lily breakfast, but my dad and Lily were on a trip and my mom wasn't up yet so I was basically the only one in the house who was awake and cou…

via Anna Wise's Blog Posts March 1, 2025

more     (via openring)