The topography of our property is ideal for a sledding park since its all downhill. Over the past four winters, we’ve carved out several chutes between the trees and trialed a variety of sleds and saucers. This past season was the best yet since we had a decent amount of snowfall and found the perfect slippery discs to ride.
Mark was the first outsider to try the runs when he visited in January. With all the enthusiastic up-and-down, we quickly figured out that we had a new wintertime social club which we dubbed ‘The Sahalee Sluicers.’ Over the long weekend, we trimmed trees, piled snow, and perfected our technique to achieve the fastest and longest rides. The breakthrough moment occurred when we tried a 2-seat configuration with excellent results for speed and maneuverability, which then prompted us to ramp up to an interlocked 3-seat bobsled style.
Making everything we do into a competition, we started to craft a schema for badges that would inspire new sluicers to compete. (We also spotted the area that would fit a nice tiki bar to refresh before hiking the hill back up for another run!)
Three runs:
- #1 The Main Drain – longest, pretty straight shot to the bottom, good potential for speed, two intersections for crash course
- #2 Whoopdie Do – coming in to The Main Drain from the right near the top, a nice high drop-in at the start with a sharp right turn to merge
- #3 Last Pass – coming in to The Main Drain from the right near the bottom, a short-but-quick drop is perfect setup for crash course
Badges:
- Complete all three runs single
- Complete all three runs single at night
- Complete all three runs 2-seats
- Complete all three runs 2-seats at night
- Complete all three runs 3-seats
- Complete all three runs 3-seats at night
- Survive a ‘crash course’
- Survive both ‘crash courses’
We still have a few improvements to make ahead of next season (including cooking up some t-shirts), but we are really looking forward to sending even more smiles and shrieks of joy through the hills. Are you up for the ride?
