Nature School :: The Sledding Place

Keeping up with our "place" names, there's The Sledding Place.  We picnicked here in the Summer and came to see the leaves in Autumn, but it is forever known as The Sledding Place. 

Properly, it is the Lewis Fork Trailhead in the Fairwood Valley, the former site of an old logging operation.  It is land that was "taken" by the Forest Service to create the National Recreation Area.  Takings are complicated things, but I am (secretly) glad they did.  It is a beautiful place.

We went looking for the snow we tried to see earlier in the week.  With days below freezing, it was still there.  It's eighteen right now!  We're expecting a warmer stretch, though, so we had to make tracks.  Speaking of tracks, there were deer and bear tracks, which the children really enjoyed following. 

Competing with snowy hillsides, the creek was lots of fun and peril, too.  Everything was slippery, except the snow, and I think nearly all of us broke through small frozen puddles before it was over.

I got some photos before the children got to it and had fun breaking up some of the ice.  I told them to save most of it for other visitors to see.  I think we were only the second guests to the forest in this snow and the other tracks were older.

I think we could have all looked for hours, but I dragged us back for some more sledding before the sun sank too low.

That holly bush is our landmark.  We climb to it and then set off.  There's only one rock sticking up, so it can be a pretty good slide to the bottom.  Willow and I road down it together last year--it felt like a roller coaster ride!

Thoroughly soaked and a little frozen, we returned home to our mostly snow-free street.  There were some men taking down a couple old, dead trees (we loved those trees) and I think we looked a little funny getting out sleds and wet coats.  I showed one of the men the photos and I think he was pleased.  Good old fashioned fun!