Sledding at Schmanska Park
By Will George
Photography Editor
Since the Covid-19 Pandemic, my days have consisted of me sitting in my room missing the time where I could see my friends without having to worry about a virus. I’ve been trying to change this by getting outside more and just doing something. Whether it’s a walk or going skiing at Sugarbush. I started taking my dogs for walks so I wasn’t inside all day, but eventually that too gets old. My friend group and I finally got our parents to let us go for hikes and we would bring lunch to eat at the top. Normally we would go to our friends house and hang out in his basement so it was a nice change of pace to have everyone go for a hike. Getting yourself outside during this pandemic can be hard, but there are many things you can go and do.
One of my favorite activities to do as a kid was to go sledding. Me and my friends would all have our parents drive us to this park in my town with our sleds. We would try to go as fast as we could and then run back up the hill. I would always try to find spots where it was icy, I liked to call those spots speed boosts like using a mushroom in Mario Kart.
Over winter break I realized that sledding is still fun. It may be an activity for kids, but who says it has to be. It was fun when we were kids so why wouldn’t it be fun now? A couple of my friends and I went sledding back in December and it was one of the best days of winter break. We made a jump and flattened the run-up just like we did back when we were kids. Since we are older now, we can go faster and the wipeouts are so much funnier than it used to be. Sledding is something everyone can do and is fun for all ages.
There are many places to go sledding within a short drive from campus. For example, Schmanska Park in Burlington has a great hill only six minutes from campus. When you get there, the parking lot is on the opposite side of the road and you will see a playground on the right and tennis courts on the left. Once you cross the road and go up the staircase, the sledding hill will be right in front of you. It has a perfect run up for a jump and big enough just to sled down. It is a steep hill, but there are multiple spots you can start from. The big hill at Schmanska Park isn’t that wide so it feels quite narrow, but it’s curved on both sides so you don’t go straight into the woods. As soon as the hill flattens out, there is a huge opening to either wipeout or ride away. We can’t become kids again, but we can do the things we loved as kids.
