While a couple of dozen steroid-filled multimillionaires prepared to take to the field this Super Bowl Sunday, their every movement watched by hundreds of millions of couch potatoes with eyes, a hundred or so tobogganers and another hundred or so spectators without sponsorships or contracts or monetary gain to drive them gathered on the side of Ragged Mountain in Camden, Maine to race down a chute onto the frozen ice of a pond. It’s called the National Toboggan Championships because they don’t know of any other place in the country that runs a race down a toboggan chute.
This is the other pole on the spectrum of American athleticism.
It was worth the 5 hour drive to spend the weekend freezing on a frozen pond! These people know how to have a good time!!!! It was GREAT! Good food and good people all around too!
How were the temperatures?
It was in the 20s, so the temperature wasn’t too bad, but the wind chill was rather nasty if you faced West out on the pond. People congregated in the woods, where the trees sheltered us from the wind. With layers and moving around, it was just fine, even for my young’uns. Catherine was right: the atmosphere away from the track was like one big party, with fires here and there and people gathering in groups both modern (wood pellet stove sellers) and not (The Ancient Ones).