• Thursday-What'sUP February 19 - 06:56 am

Nothing brings an instant smile to your face, than the rush of flying down a snowy hill and thanks to Brita Haapala and kids, we get to join in their sledding smiles, too. Now before anyone gets their pasties in a bunch about the danger of the trees at the bottom of the hill, Mom (Brita) checked it all out before they began, to make sure it was safe and nobody even came close to the line of trees. That being said, now let's enjoy the fun that these smiling faces portray to us so well. These shots bring back memories for me of when I was a kid and we'd go up to the gully nearby to take a turn screaming and laughing as we rocketed down to the bottom. Those were the days... winter fun in the Keweenaw outdoors.

What a joy those pics always are Brita!

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Oh the fun!!!

Nice pictures today brings back memories of us kids shooshing down the hills in French Gully in Hubbell at that age. We didnt win any Olympic gold but a great time was had by all and mom had pasties ready when we returned after 4 hours on the hills. At the age of 8 or 10 they looked like mountains as we adjusted our rubber band bindings to travel down the "Bunny Hills". I didnt have to worry about missing any text messages as we never even had a phone at home at that age.

hi
i took my niece out sledding last weekend. My brother got custody of our childhood sleds, wood perched on metal runners, which can be steered by pushing on the cross-bar. I think we were the only ones with that type of sled. Can those plastic ones be steered?

Cute kids and pictures! Got me thinking about being a kid in the Flexible Flyer days of the 1960's. I still have 2 of those old Flyers today.

When we were kids we would sled down "Clouthier's" hill in Hubbell. My brother Kevin had the fastest sled on the hill - the wooden kind on metal runners. I can remember him waxing the runners for added speed. All the neighborhood kids would come and we'd go up and down for hours!

Brita!

Awesome photos as always! Thank you!

Kathyrn -- You can steer a plastic sled pretty well by dragging your hands; left hand on the snow to turn left, etc. But when I lift both hands above my head, the sled never flies. Oh well.

Remember the sled names? Flexible Flier, BeeLine, Silver Streak. You name some more....

My favorite "sled" was the toboggan! 4 or 5 of us together flying down the hills ;o)

Rowdy, the "Yankee Clipper" is the older, and the faster, of the sleds my brother has.

Doug, we also had a tobboggan when we were older kids. One time my brother was sitting in front wearing a snorkel parka; when we shot off the packed snow into drifts he got a faceful, thoughtfully held in place by the "snorkel".

Hey Rowdy...here's another old name...Maytag! My mom had a Maytag wringer washer. I stoled the lid from it, took the handle off, and had a steel saucer sled.

I grew up in the thumb area, had a lot more snow in the 70's than they get now. It wasn't exactly a sled, but Dad made a "trailer" to tow behind the snowmobile. Went to the junkyard and got a trunk lid off an old car, turned it upside down, welded a hitch on the front and welded on an old bus seat to sit on. The first time we tried it, the sled actually passed the snowmobile because we had neglected to put on scags (stabilizing rods to keep it going straight). Once the design was perfected we spent a lot of time driving around the snow-covered fields, my sister and I taking turns hauling each other. Also came in quite handy for ice fishing on Saginaw Bay. For that we rigged on collapsible canvas walls for a windbreak.

We had those cool wooden sleds on the metal runners. That was the very vehicle I used to go down the really long hill down to Old Victoria. What a ride...woo hoo!! I remember lots of fun on the toboggan (and some crazy crashes).

We used cardboard, til it got wet;O)