« renters needed! | Main | Oh, the weather outside is frightful... »

hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps ...

GI_YSP_083.jpg

It is just too hard to focus on work as I look over my shoulder and see Canal Park cloaked in snow!

I need to know Duluthians ... where are the best sledding hills in Duluth?


What are some gnarly sledding incidents?
Can you really enjoy a night of sledding without hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps?

When I was a pup in school here ... um 11 years ago, we used to go to some park to do jumps on our snowboards near Central Entrance and Lake Ave. Some kid I was with landed a jump so crazy he broke a bone and shat himself... aahhh youth.

Comments

Friends and I used to sneak into Chester Bowl and sled on shovel heads down that giant ski jump hill...but on second thought, that was pretty dangerous, and it's easy to run into various structures. At speeds like that, you might break something. If you are feeling brave, you could go for it. Just keep in mind that walking up that hill is quite the hike. I'd just be careful if you choose this destination. It might be illegal, too, come to think of it.


Favorite Runs:
-3rd hole Northland golf course
-The old inner tube area on 7 bridges road
-Snowboarding down Lake Avenue during big snow storms !

As a child, we rode an inverted Volkswagon bug hood down the hills of Northland golf course. Eight kids puppy-piled onto a lethal sled with zero control and no brakes. weeeeeeeee....


I always thought it would be cool to close a road in Duluth, cover it with snow, groom it and have a ski race.

And if you sled in Superior Nemadji was and should still be king.


There is a monster hill across St. Marie from UMD. I haven't sledded it but it looks like all kinds of fun


There is a kick-ass sledding hill behind UMD at Bagley Nature Area. Long and steep. Enter campus from St. Marie Street. Parking lot is to the right after Maplewood Court. Duluth may or may not have any other hills. Have fun!


my driveway!!!


The monster hill behind UMD is Rock Hill. We used to use serving trays from the RHDC for sleds. It was really wicked. For the kids, Holy Rosary School.


I think there's a classic (big for a kid and longish) sledding hill at the Ridgeview golf course in Woodland, but I may be misremembering that from my childhood. I think it was right behind the clubhouse.

There were a couple of really great short ones at the Fryberger estate, too, but they had to go and "develop" there, so it's probably someone's backyard, now. (assholes.)


Didn't they have a big ski race down Duluth's streets at one point? I'm talking waaaaaaay back. Like mid 80s? I'm pretty sure I recall attending such an event as a child.... Anybody know anything about such a thing?

I would be all for closing Lake Ave for an all-city sledathon. Whaddya say, Herbie?


Didn't they have a big ski race down Duluth's streets at one point? I'm talking waaaaaaay back. Like mid 80s? I'm pretty sure I recall attending such an event as a child.... Anybody know anything about such a thing?

I would be all for closing Lake Ave for an all-city sledathon. Whaddya say, Herbie?


Todd Gremmels organized that race! Gremmels for Mayor!!


Last year my younger brother and his college roommates slid on an abandoned car hood from their house on the corner of 4th/21st down to the bottom of 21st and left it by the McDonalds parking lot. Or, well, that's the way they tell it, anyway. Then again, with enough liquid courage...


just got home and made it up my "asshole" driveway.


i heard mesaba is a screamer...


Lincoln Park. Spirit Mountain after hours. Central Path. Proctor Golf Course.


Ridgeview Country Club golf course. The hole by the parking lot. (I think they don't mind. Lots of people use it, and there's not a sign saying don't.)
700 W. Redwing St., Woodland neighborhood


My kid and I like Chester Bowl, but try not to crash into the skiiers. We've been kicked off that hill many times. And behind UMD is pretty good. Lincoln Park is good. We've even done 19th Ave East, but stop before you get to the street.


Northland Country Club holes 1,2,3,10,and especially 15. Across from the Ski Chalet up on 7 Bridges Road as well. Holy Rosary and Chester Bowl are as good as always.


Chester Bowl ski jump hills are the best. I've been up there sledding twice this winter already. Watch a ten second video at YouTube if you'd like (opens in new window).


I grew up right behind Northland golf course and nbayuk is right, #15 is an awesome sledding hill with a gorgeous view of the lake.

We also went to Chester Bowl a lot and to Ridgeview (the 10th hole I believe which is the one next to the clubhouse).


speaking of spirit mountain after hours ... I went up with a crap load of friends years ago to do more illegal snowboarding and jump making. out of the corner of my eye my friends and I spied a round black something. My roommate .. thinking it was a balloon .. went up and gave it one heck of a kick .. only to find out it was a bowling ball. Really emma... a balloon? It's 13 degrees outside. We carried that balloon, I mean bowling ball, with us the rest of our college days, I think she still has it.
Oh that trip also created another emergency room visit as one kid broke his collar bone. Duluth snow is hard.


Paul, would you happen to be referring to the central high school path? That thing was pretty cool, but the snow is always super packed from students trudging up it. Sometimes it used to freeze over after a bit of slush to make a sort of luge tunnel.


hey if u want to make a little rodie hed up to cloquet and go to pine hurst. go the back side and youll die. my friend went right under a fence and got a concussion. bomb hill though


Central Path is at the top of Central Avenue in West Duluth.


That street ski race was in the early 1990's I think, and yes, Todd Gremmels did organize it. It was on Lake Avenue, and unfortunately none of the skiers got going very fast. It isn't as steep of a hill as everyone thought!


The most striking episode of street-sledding I ever witnessed took place in Chapel Hill, NC, of all places. They'd gotten 20 inches of snow shortly before I got into town, which was an all-time record. And the first thing I saw when I started walking uptown was a kid on a Flexible Flyer whooshing down the hill and around the curve on Airport Road, which is a 5-lane road heading down a big hill directly in the center of town. With 20 inches of snow on the ground, he had it all to himself, and he just kept on going out of sight.

Why a kid going to college in North Carolina had a sled, I've never quite figured out.


Oh, I know Airport Road in Chapel Hill! I missed those 20 inches of snow -- when I was there 1988-1994, the snowfall was always pretty pathetic. They'd close UNC at the hint of snow. Wusses! Everyone would crowd into the grocery stores and buy everything in sight even before the snow would fall and the buses would stop running. I think the county had one snowplow. Maybe not.


Post a comment


Seriously: If you click "post" more than once, you're going to end up looking really stupid.

If you don't see your comment after it's published, try refreshing your browser.