We loved toboggans out in the country. Trouble was from the top of the hill you started on 20 yards of ice and hard pack so the speed was insane as you approached the area with a few trees scattered about. You actually could steer just a little by twisting the front end. That is, until you hit the deep stuff and couldn't see a thing through the white mass coming over the front. We would watch the other folks coming down and when they hit the powder they completely disappeared in a cloud of white flying down the hill.
The city would build these huge toboggan slides made of ice blocks. You started with your toboggan on a big level pivot. The operators would make sure you all were locked together with intertwined legs and arms and hands firmly gripping the side ropes. When they were convinced you were a tight unit they pulled the lever and the whole thing tilted up and launched you down the steep ice chute.
When I was growing up ( 3-12 ) in Kansas we had fun sledding. There was a high school on a ridge above my neighborhood with a long stair going up from a park along a creek. The collective youth would pack snow on the staircase and we would use our Flexible Flyer ( or equiv ) to rocket down the slope towards the creek. There was also a chain link fence running along and it was quite possible to go off course and have a spectacular wipe out. Character building at it's finest.
jrsy
in reply to Khurram Wadee • • •We loved toboggans out in the country. Trouble was from the top of the hill you started on 20 yards of ice and hard pack so the speed was insane as you approached the area with a few trees scattered about. You actually could steer just a little by twisting the front end. That is, until you hit the deep stuff and couldn't see a thing through the white mass coming over the front. We would watch the other folks coming down and when they hit the powder they completely disappeared in a cloud of white flying down the hill.
The city would build these huge toboggan slides made of ice blocks. You started with your toboggan on a big level pivot. The operators would make sure you all were locked together with intertwined legs and arms and hands firmly gripping the side ropes. When they were convinced you were a tight unit they pulled the lever and the whole thing tilted up and launched you down the steep ice chute.
Holy shit!!
Mark Wollschlager
in reply to Khurram Wadee • • •