OHIOPYLE, Pa. — It was a winter wonderful day on snow-crusted Sugarloaf Mountain, three miles outside — and 1,000 feet above — this Fayette County town.
Squealing children and more reserved adults on plastic sleds, inner tubes and kayaks slid down a fairly steep hill bordered by glistening ice-coated Appalachian hardwood trees.
Other children and adults met with a musher and his dog-sled team, learned about survival in the woods, tried on snowshoes and cross-country skis and played Frisbee golf.
It was all part of Ohiopyle’s Second Annual WinterFest, a mid-point break in a season that keeps too many people indoors. More than 200 persons came out to participate or watch. And the weather was perfect — sunshine, blue skies, temperatures in the mid-20s and none of the wicked wind that chilled last year’s participants to their bones.
“It’s awesome the park does this to get people out in nature,” said Paul Winter, of nearby Farmington. “They couldn’t have planned a better day, even with the ice and all.
Ah, yes. The ice. There wasn’t much of anything to slide on three days ago. Then came a coating of snow followed by a layer of ice followed by another coating of snow. It was less than 2 inches thick, but it was enough to slide on. Was it ever. Some riders came within a few feet of sliding into a nearby parking lot.
The run-out — about 100 yards over some bumps and dips — was twice as long as the hill.
“It’s a lot of fun,” said sled-rider Roland Ebong, a 12-year-old seventh-grader at the Spring Valley Community School in Farmington, part of Church Communities International.
Zac Wright, dressed in a bright orange one-piece hunting suit, whizzed by on a big innertube. “It really goes,” said the 16-year-old junior at California Area High School. Also on the hill with a big tube was his brother, Zane, 13, who attends California Middle School.
Jim Wright captured all the sliding on a hand-held digital video recorder. “It’s been a special week for all of us,” said Mr. Wright, 45, a disabled maintenance worker from Daisytown, Washington County. “I just adopted the boys. We were all in [Common Pleas] court on Thursday to make it official.”
Another son, Jermaine Merrill, 21, a junior majoring in graphic design at Clarion University, attended WinterFest with his girlfriend, Leane Helton, 19, a sophomore special education major at Waynesburg College. He was enthusiastic about snowtubing; she was a bit apprehensive.
“I was so scared at the top of the hill,” she said. “I could ski it because I can control the skis. But you don’t have any control on an innertube.”
The Wild family from Canberra, Australia, gave the event an international flavor. Russell, 36, is the first secretary of the Australian embassy in Washington, D.C. He was joined by his wife, Marissa, 34, and their son, Jackson, 4. Mother and son rode the sled. Dad pushed.
They moved to the side of the run-out area as Jeff Felton, 25, of Follansbee, W.Va., and Ron Metzger, 36, of Waynesville, Ohio, started down the hill in their bright yellow kayaks.
“It’s bumpier than you think it is,” Mr. Metzger said. “It was like running Cucumber rapid (on the Youghiogheny River) at a low water level when you feel more rocks than water.”
They then handed the kayaks over to Jocelyn Metzger, 30, and Toni Hartley, 40, of Westerville, Ohio. The quartet then doubled up. The men sat on the back of the kayaks; the women sat in the cockpits.
WinterFest was sponsored by the park, the Friends of Ohiopyle State Park, Jellystone Campground, The Lodge at Chalk Hill, Tom %26amp; Jerry’s Medical Service and Animal House Pet Needs.
Lawrence Walsh can be reached at lwalsh@post-gazette.com and 412-263-1488.
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