Loppet Snow Madness
Warning - catch up post. Feb 5th timeframe.
I know some readers are just dying for some new posts, and they're right - I haven't been throwing up many new posts of late. So for all those afflicted with blog-reading-OCD (you know who you are) here you go :-)
The Loppet xcountry ski race was to be held several weeks ago (same weekend as the Stupor Bowl race, actually.) The City had set up snow-making-machines in the little park on the west side of Lake Calhoun, and had been blowing snow all week. They were building up a snow stockpile to be used to build up the race course, which meant they needed veritable assloads of snow.
Problem was, a major heat wave was rolling through (OK, "major heat wave" is maybe a little overdramatic, but 50F in February qualifies.) So that Friday night, the night before the race, the City dispatched several large front-end loaders to push all the man-made snow into a giant pile. I don't know if they did this to prevent it from melting, or just to make it easier to load up the next day ... I'm not sure. But their reasons don't matter - what matters is that the City had created a nice artificial sledding hill that few people knew about (although CB mentioned that there was a news crew filming out there before I arrived.) I worked a little later than usual, until CB gave me call to clue me in. So I headed home, grabbed my 2 plastic sleds (duct-taped them together so I could carry them under my arm on my mtn bike) and rode over to CBs place. (By the way, sometimes I love my life - 31 yrs old, no kids, riding to a friends place on a Friday night to go sledding. Gotta love it. So yeah, my life rocks!)
The hill was better than expected, a big 2 story-high wedge-shaped hill with a nice slope on the front (perfect for sledding), and a steep dropoff on the back (perfect for pitching yourself off, on a sled, while hoping not to die.) CB was in self-preservation mode (not wanting to get injured before his trip down-under) so he didn't tackle the back dropoff - his loss.
The next day, they hauled the snow out onto the lake, and into the streets in preparations for the race ... which they then cancelled anyway. At least some of us got to enjoy it!
I know some readers are just dying for some new posts, and they're right - I haven't been throwing up many new posts of late. So for all those afflicted with blog-reading-OCD (you know who you are) here you go :-)
The Loppet xcountry ski race was to be held several weeks ago (same weekend as the Stupor Bowl race, actually.) The City had set up snow-making-machines in the little park on the west side of Lake Calhoun, and had been blowing snow all week. They were building up a snow stockpile to be used to build up the race course, which meant they needed veritable assloads of snow.
Problem was, a major heat wave was rolling through (OK, "major heat wave" is maybe a little overdramatic, but 50F in February qualifies.) So that Friday night, the night before the race, the City dispatched several large front-end loaders to push all the man-made snow into a giant pile. I don't know if they did this to prevent it from melting, or just to make it easier to load up the next day ... I'm not sure. But their reasons don't matter - what matters is that the City had created a nice artificial sledding hill that few people knew about (although CB mentioned that there was a news crew filming out there before I arrived.) I worked a little later than usual, until CB gave me call to clue me in. So I headed home, grabbed my 2 plastic sleds (duct-taped them together so I could carry them under my arm on my mtn bike) and rode over to CBs place. (By the way, sometimes I love my life - 31 yrs old, no kids, riding to a friends place on a Friday night to go sledding. Gotta love it. So yeah, my life rocks!)
The hill was better than expected, a big 2 story-high wedge-shaped hill with a nice slope on the front (perfect for sledding), and a steep dropoff on the back (perfect for pitching yourself off, on a sled, while hoping not to die.) CB was in self-preservation mode (not wanting to get injured before his trip down-under) so he didn't tackle the back dropoff - his loss.
The next day, they hauled the snow out onto the lake, and into the streets in preparations for the race ... which they then cancelled anyway. At least some of us got to enjoy it!
posted by equipoise at 9:50 PM
1 Comments:
Woohoo! Blog OCD temporarily satiated! Sledding rules!
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