Remembering "The Ravine From Hell"...Good Times

If we had all the technological gadgets growing up that the kids have nowadays, you'd better believe I'd be posting pictures and videos every winter from "The Ravine from Hell." It was a sledding run that we used from when I was in elementary school all the way to my college years.

It was that good.

Earlier this week I went hiking above my house and the hill that once was is no more, partially, because there's a house bordering on the ravine, and secondly (and more importantly...) the person who bought the hill spent a small fortune setting up rock retaining walls, forever erasing the ravine.

When our family decided to develop the end of the road for building lots, it doomed our sledding hill. But in its day, it was beautiful. We would spend hours on the hill. Plastic sleds were good, but the best way to descend was atop a huge inner tube. My dad used to get them from Hill Air Force Base where he worked. After he passed away, we had to scrounge for tubes and we'd spend hours repairing them with bicycle tube repair patches--had to keep those thing inflated.

And the hike to the top of the ravine was brutal. It took so long, mostly because we traveled so far. It's hard to see, but that black circle is roughly where we'd end up (that small object in the circle is my car...). I'm no expert, but we'd like several hundred feet up the mountain each time.

After each snow storm, we'd go build the berms to keep us on the track. If we got going too fast, we'd fly off the top and head into non-track areas. There were several rocks, but the biggest thing to avoid was a power pole. In all my years, I can't remember if me or any of my friends ever ran into the thing. It most likely happened, but as with much of childhood, I seem to only recall the good times.

Looking back, it was a very dangerous sledding hill, but I don't remember our parents ever complaining or stopping us. We'd rid that hill for hours on the weekends, and even after school, if the storm was big enough.

Like much of my childhood, the physical markers where we played--sledding runs, empty fields, even back yards--are gone. With those same gadgets that would have captured the fun, kids now use them for personal entertainment. It's too bad--it's hard to beat a a sledding run called "The Ravine from Hell."

Good times.