Snow Tubing at Snow Valley

Last weekend I had a fun weekend of winter frolics with a group of friends I hang with up in the Collingwood area.  It was the first time I had been Snow Tubing and it was fantastic!  I am sure all you parents reading this blog from snow belt locations can remember tobogganing with the family.  Lots of exercise as you haul the toboggan up the hill and probably 2 minutes of fun as you zip down.  By the time an hour is up you have had enough, even if the kids haven't because you are the one hauling the toboggan.

Tubing removes all the uphill work but of course it isn't without a price.  The line ups for the lift was sometimes a bit long, but because there were 10 of us, it was filled pleasantly enough with chit chat, even if our toes and fingers got a bit cold.

 I took the photo above whilst being hauled up the hill on the tube tow.  It is far and takes quite a few minutes to get to the bottom.  If you click on the picture above you will get a better idea of how high and how far the tubing run is. 

 

At first we went down the hill individually, feeling a bit timid about flying down the mountain at the advertised 80 kph speed. Soon we discovered that it seemed even safer when you were linked with a friend, even though you were flying down the hill faster than you would on your own.

Although it was supposed to be OK to go down in groups of many more, we found that after we had flown down the hill in a group of 5, there was reason to believe we might become airborn with any more weight added to the mix.  When the group of 5 that I was a part of went down we bounced off  the fence barrier end of the run and was flung back down the little incline which is there as a stopper.  Fortunately, it was a mesh type screen not a hard fence, so there were no injuries, save a scrape on the hand of one fellow whose hand was caught up in the fence.

I found the You Tube following, published by Snow Valley which shows what it is all about. The Snow Valley people found someone who could make a video whilst flying down the hill - I was not because my hands were tightly welded to the tube hand holds. Have a lookey to see what it is all about and experience some of the exhilaration of the downhill ride.


I spent the rest of the Family Day long weekend staying with my friends at the Gopher Broke Farm.  We got to do a bit of snow shoeing, but mostly just had a lazy weekend and caught up with one another - I had not visited since the New Year holiday weekend.

I am going to have to beg off providing another blog for this weekend, the next post will be Tuesday for my regular Art and Architecture blog. I am going to be very busy over the weekend dismantling my office/guest room in order to make way for my daughter who is moving back home until the summer. Not quite sure where I will put everything, it will be a bit cramped around here for the next number of months for sure.  I guess I am entering the next phase of life: the return of adult children to the fold.