Going Wild: It’s Snow Fun

Maybe it was the marathon of Christmas specials or simply the drop in temperature, but I’m in the mood for sledding.

Yes, sledding. Not the manlier snowboarding or even straddling a 115 horsepower snowmobile, but honest-to-gosh, frozen-nose, snow-up-your-shorts sledding. I mean, when was the last time you went? And chauffeuring your sister’s kids to the local hill while you sip coffee in front of the car’s heater vents doesn’t count.

So last weekend, off I dived on in. I strapped up my favorite KEEN Snow Rover Boots —just one of our great pair of snow boots to get you up the hill—searched the nearest sled riding hills on sledriding.com, and set out to pick my sled. And felt my jaw drop. The choices are now worse than a cappuccino stand.

Used to be, it was the old reliable Flexible Flyer runner sled or, well, a cardboard box. Nowadays, there’s tube sleds, saucer sleds, solid plastic sleds, toboggans, and sleds I swore had cup holders in them (wow, I feel one of my Dad’s “in my days” lectures coming on…). So I boldly rented a tube sled and off I went down the hill…only to crash into a kid who I swear was breaking the sound barrier. Needless to say, I reached my objective of the bottom of the hill even if my sled did not. But ya know what? It was just as fun as I remember.

And hey, my KEEN Winter Boots made it pretty easy to get right back up. About 40 more times.