What it's like sledding the hill at Kensington Metropark

Looking up at the advanced sledding hill at Kensington Metropark near Brighton.

After several years of spending a weekend in Island Lake State Recreation Area without snow, Heikki Lunta blessed us this past weekend with the first major snowfall of the season. What better way to celebrate that first snowfall th
an with a trip to one of the bigger sledding hills across southeast Michigan?

I spent part of my weekend in eastern Livingston County this past weekend as I have done for most weekends in January the past 20+ years with the youth group I now help run. Island Lake State Rec Area is a special place to me, especially in the wintertime. With the large snowfall, we checked at nearby Kensington Metropark for their sledding hill, and were told it was open with fresh powder.

After loading up the vehicles, we headed to Kensington for the afternoon to a hill that's my favorite to sled.

I may be 30 years old now, but there's no such thing as being too old for a good sledding hill. The hill, covered in a wintry blanket of snow and leaves, ran quickly. We traditionally use metal runner sleds that are straight out of the 1980s, and those puppies run quick and accurate. I tried my hand at a more modern, plastic runner sled, but steering proved difficult.

But you don't need my words to tell you this; check out the footage shot on my trusty GoPro Hero 5, which I acquired last summer in preparation for the canoe trip I took to Canada in July. Three times I hit "record" on my camera, and each time had a little different feeling. Take a look: