Category — Sledding

What a beautiful day! We spent tons of time outside, most of it at Collins Park. In fact, M got a sunburn. Because I’m a bad mother who didn’t put sunscreen on her child.

Well, really, who would’ve guessed that the girls would spend, like, 4 or 5 hours outdoors? After Collins I was sure that they’d collapse on the sofa, but Mary’s granddaughter was visiting and playing outside, so after some food they trooped out again.

Anyway, I’ve suggested Collins Park in Scotia as a sledding destination before, because the parking is right there, and there’s the nearby library and a Dunkin’ Donuts for thawing out/cocoa drinking. I remembered it as a small hill, but it seemed almost treacherously steep today. There’s been a ton of sledding, so it was a quite iced over. I hadn’t noticed, before, that there’s a convenient staircase as well.

The kids loved sledding, but while everyone was sledding, we noticed that the snow was being cleared off of part of Collins Lake.  All of that gleaming ice was calling to us. Pretty soon we were heading to the lake for some sledding and/or sliding.

Look at the huge amount of cleared ice! Do you see the truck-with-plow in the upper left and how teensy it looks? I know!

And of course, on the border there were nice piles of fresh snow to play in. M found it irresistible, even mid-skate. There were some huge piles for a little snow-mountain climbing, which all the kids enjoyed. With all the activity and our winter gear, it felt downright balmy, and one of our friends had brought along a picnic blanket, so we all plopped down and snacked right out on the ice.

It was a wonderful day. Of course, that playroom’s still a pigsty.

Oh, two quick things I’ve been meaning to pass along:  First,  I’ve seen people sledding on what looks like a huge and fun hill just off Hetcheltown Road in Glenville, a bit north of Indian Kill Preserve. Second, you might recall that I was blogging a bit at CBS 6 as katies. I’ve decided to stop because I’ve been busy with other things, but if you’re interested in dabbling in a bit of blogging, I think that they’d love a new volunteer or two. Email me if you’d like details.

We went sledding today, and I have to tell you:  I am not good at sledding. You would think that there’s not a great deal of skill involved.  I mean, children do it quite successfully.  Not me.  I always get nervous and start wiggling around, and that throws the sled off course, and next thing you know we’ve managed to turn around and we are going backwards.  Or we’re pitching over to the side.  Or we’re running into a tree.  All of which happened this afternoon, once on the same run downhill.

I was particularly nervous today because the sleds were fast.  The last few times we’d gone, our scratched-up plastic sleds barely moved, so we’d be chugga-chugga-chugging to get started.  So this time I decided to be clever and utilize some simple household items.  First, I rubbed the sled bottoms with a votive candle (unlit), and then, in case that didn’t help, I sprayed the bottoms with Pam cooking spray.  In retrospect, if I had wanted to use the scientific method, I should have given each sled only one of the two treatments so that I could compare and contrast and, possibly, produce a bar graph.  But we all know that if I’d done that, there would be fights over who got which sled.  Whichever item did the trick, the sleds were frighteningly fast.  We were just at the local school, where the brick and concrete are not too terribly far from the bottom of the hill, and I’d always thought it was safe.  Until today.  Today I was so relieved that no one was hemorrhaging that I even pulled the girls on the sleds for most of the way home.

Anyway, the fresh snow the other day inspired me to look into local tubing possibilities.  I found a few, although they’re more of a trip than I’d hoped (of course, you can always bring your own tube anywhere).  And then, while I was at it, I realized that I might as well create a section for skiing/snowboarding/tubing day trips on the Big Ol’ List of Links for You.  If you click, scroll down to the bottom for Winter Day Trips.  Here are some tubing spots:

• Glimmerglass State Park (Cooperstown) has tubing on weekends Jan. 9th to Feb. 28th from 11 am to 4 pm.  $5/day, but you’ve got to walk up the hill.
• Gore Mountain in North Creek (northwest of Lake George) has tubing at $16/2 hours.  Children must be 36 inches or taller to use the lifts.
• Sawkill Family Ski Center in Kingston has tubing at $15/1 hour or $20/2 hours.  There’s a 42-inch height minimum.
• Tubby Tubes Co. in Lake Luzerne (near Lake George).  Rates weren’t posted  online, but I have  heard that the slopes are mellow/small kid friendly.
• West Mountain in Queensbury, near Glens Falls has tubing that’s $16/adults and $8 for kids under 6 for two hours.  Kids are not permitted to ride with an adult.
• Willard Mountain in Greenwich (east of Saratoga) has tubing for 2 hours for $15.
• Windham Mountain is west of Hudson (a good 90 minutes from me near Schenectady), and it has tubing at $20/2 hours.

Considering how inept I am with mere sledding, we’ve thus far skipped out on snow tubing, ourselves.  But I’d love opinions, if anyone’s been to these places or others.

And finally, for still more outdoor fun, those oh-so-helpful folks at All Over Albany have created a list of places to ice skate outdoors.  Hooray!  This is one of those things that was on my list of things to do, so I am particularly grateful to them.  Go check it out.

I know this seems crazy, but February break has flown by for us.  Tomorrow I’ll have weekend activities, and then we’ll all be back to the old routine.

This morning we got some new snow that’s perfect for snowballs & snowmen!

Or snowgirls!  Note the eyelashes.

So I had to run out of the house this morning, and I felt pretty guilty when someone called my house because I had not yet posted where to go sledding. (Jeez!  Who would do that?  I mean, really?  What a freak!  And yes, I’m kidding.  About the freakishness.  Someone actually did call me.)

Anyway, I’ve been meaning to share what I know on sledding hills, but I have two problems:  1) I don’t know all that much, especially beyond my neighborhood, and 2) it’s hard to judge a sledding hill unless you’ve been there when there’s snow and people sledding.

But I’m going to operate under the assumption that a little bit of information, including much that is secondhand, is better than none.  Please, by all means, add suggestions in comments.  Okay?

Some suggestions:

• The Albany Times Union lists reader-voted best sledding hills, an the consistent winners are Frear Park in Troy, Capital Hills Golf Course in Albany, and Sand Creek Middle School in Colonie. See votes for 2008 and 2009.
• Lincoln Park, near the DMV in downtown Albany–park on Morton Avenue across from the Stewarts Shop on the left.  Lincoln Park and hill are located right there above the city pool.  Also, the tee-bird golf course in Moreau, north or south . The south, hole #4, has the best two sledding hills of them all. This is located off of Reynolds Rd.  Both of these suggestions are from this cool sledding site.
• www.Saratoga.com has a list of best sledding hills
• www.Albany.com includes sledding hills in their “best of” lists—you have to scroll down a bit
• Rosendale Elementary School in Niskayuna—bear left and go behind the school
• The Schenectady Municipal Golf Course—take Golf Road away from Central Park and park near the clubhouse
• Blatnick Park in Niskayuna
• Collins Park in Scotia has a small hill good for little kids, with the added bonus of the library to warm up and a Dunkin’ Donuts for cocoas both in walking distance

Okay, I made this whole entire list and then I accidentally deleted it and cursed repeatedly and meanwhile my children are clamoring to make snow ice cream.  I was going to give the recipe here, but they’re about to flip out.  So, I know it’s getting warmer–grab a big bowl of ice cream and stick it in your freezer and I’ll tell you later–okay?