Snow just in time at the annual trip to Island Lake State Recreation Area

It's been a weird winter here in Metro Detroit.

We got several inches of snow on Veterans Day in mid-November, and that's ... it. No substantial snowfall around Christmas or New Year's, and late December saw higher-than-average temperatures. The pattern of the winter so far led me to believe the annual trip I take to Island Lake State Recreation Area would be snowless as well.

Well, praise be Heikki Lunta, because about six inches fell overnight the first night I spent in the rustic cabin with the youth group I help lead. After unloading the van and getting the cabin ready for a weekend of fun, Mother Nature dumped plenty of the fluffy white stuff in eastern Livingston County for a day of fun in the snow.

I've been going to the rustic cabins at the park for more than 20 years. They haven't changed much, and the area around the cabin hasn't changed much either. It's always a welcome sign to head to my normal spots for fun winter activities, like sledding.

It's an activity everyone can enjoy, and a simple walk from the cabin to a hill made for the best kickoff to the day. I only made a few runs on this hill, ones that can be viewed in the above video as shot on my GoPro action camera. After recording the sledding run last year at Kensington Metropark, I decided the hills in Island Lake would be a good option for action recording this year.

The hill is an old rock quarry that's been reclaimed by nature, and it's a great place to sled. There are several slots made perfectly for running down the hill, and even spots that make for great jumps (for some people, at least...).

After this hill and a trip onto the area trails on cross-country skis, it was time to head to the area near the Spring Mill Pond, which has several hills worthy of sledding. Here, the grass has grown much longer than it had been in previous years, which slowed down many of the sleds. Another area on the front hill that used to lead to an easy set of jumps were so overgrown that you weren't able to reach the jump successfully.

It's amazing how quiet the park is during the wintertime, my favorite time to head there. It's so close to so many people in southeast Michigan, but I always feel like I'm being left alone when I head there every January. It's a feeling I hope to keep for a long, long time.

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: