Earlier today I watched the Universe II preview again, and as always happens, I felt a great need to go and pretend I’m extreme. I’m not. But it’s fun to feel that way.
So I went looking for some snow piles to play on, didn’t see any that looked promising, but eventually ended up at a place called Rock Canyon Park. It’s a big drainage area for flood control and is surrounded on all four sides by pretty steep manmade hills. They also get more snow than the rest of the town, and so is the sledding mecca of the area.
I got there and first thing I decided to try was riding down one of the snowy slopes on my MUni. So I did. Everyone around was watching, but unfortunately it was too easy. When going at full speed, I had too much traction. So after riding down a few more times, trying to make myself slide on the snowy slope, I decided to try something more fun.
There were a number of snow jumps people had built for sledding purposes, so I found an unused one and went for it. I built up momentum riding down the slope (if I had ridden slowly, the wheel would have slipped), hit the jump, caught air, panicked, and dismounted in midair to try and land on my feet. I think I crashed anyway. But I spent the next hour riding down the hill and trying to fly. I got to the point where I could consistently land the jump, but I couldn’t survive the rollout. Luckily this was a grassy hill covered in snow, so all my crashes and suicide swan dives and flips didn’t do more than give me a few bruises. But it was worth it. I landed and rolled out of a few of the jumps, but I was mostly happy for not chickening out.
I’m going to be sore tomorrow, but it was worth it!
Next time I’ll bring my digital camera and get some pics and video…