From the Vaults: Snow Day!
From the Vaults: Snow Day!
No, not that kind of snow day. I am talking about something we hatched to help make the long stretch of winter weather (January to the end of March in the western Upper Peninsula) a little more bearable. It is no surprise that everyone in a school starts getting a little ‘shack happy’ when the deepest part of winter dominates everything we do. The original idea to put together some form of ‘snow day’ activity for the Ontonagon Area Schools Junior High students goes to then grade 7-12 principal Tom Hartzell. Bruce Johanson and I were the seventh and eighth grade class advisors in the mid 1980s. When Tom called us in to talk about his idea, he did not have to do very much convincing to get us on board. Tom was well aware that Bruce and I were in the habit of getting students out of school and into the real world. He told us to think of it like a short field trip with many individual parts. We soon began referring to this as our Winter Recreation Day (WRD for short) and we divided up the tasks required to make it happen.
The first WRD was held in 1988 which I can verify by going back to when the Class of 1993 graduation photo composite. This class was in seventh grade the first year we attempted a Winter Recreation Day and I have Lee Crandall to thank for being my reference point on the timing (more on Lee in a bit). Tom said he would contact the Adventure Mountain Ski Hill about bringing our students there for a day of fun and frolic. An avid ski enthusiast, Tom wanted to make sure that downhill and cross country skiing would be available. There were no groomed XC trails there at the time but a student from Mass City, Rick McKay, volunteered to scout out a route. My only stipulation was, “Remember, some of these kids will be new to the sport.”
Bruce was tasked with organizing skating at the Adventure Mountain ice rink. With a whole day ahead, he decided to use part of the day for skating and part of the day for broom ball. I am not sure where he got the idea to play ‘Earth Ball’ (or where he got a hold of one of these eight foot diameter monster balls) on the snowy expanse north of the parking lot. The crowning event for the day was to be a winner take all footrace (dubbed the Klondike Dash) across this same field. Some of the students suggested ‘tubing’ on the hill so that was also added to the agenda.
The combined seventh and eight grade classes in 1988 numbered approximately __. Knowing everyone would not want to take part in every activity, the three of us took charge of different activities. My biggest task leading up to the WRD was to get permission slips for all
students who would be attending. With WRD taking place on a school day, those not interested were informed they would have to attend a ‘regular day of school’. We were not at all sure how this would be received because a) it would not have been a ‘normal day’ with most of the students out of the building and b) we were pretty sure anyone who did not want to go would just stay home. I do not remember the headcount, but we were pleased that just about every student signed up. So, how did the first WRD turn out?
Tom was rather disappointed because somewhere along the way the wires got crossed and the person who was supposed to operate the rope tow never showed up. This minor hic-cup hardly phased the die hard skiers – they grabbed their skis and marched up and down the hill until they were too tired to continue. It was a sunny, crisp day so it didn’t hurt to keep moving. Some went off to check out other things that were going on or simply enjoyed themselves snacking and visiting. Eventually, the skiing gave way to snow-tubing, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.
Rick acted as our XC ski guide and eight or ten of us set off on the trail he had packed with a snowmobile. It ran to the east, past the Adventure Mine and down the old road that used to connect Greenland to Mass City. Just before this trail reached the paved road on the Mass City side, Rick had turned back to the west and followed the trail to the top of the Mass City Bluff. I was a little worried about the kids who didn’t have a lot of experience, but they were pretty game. We took in the view from the top of the Bluff and then continued following the ridgeline to the west. Before we got as far as the Ridge Road connecting Mass City to the west side of Greenland, Rick’s trail made a loop in the direction of the top of the ski hill. This is where the fun began (and I use the word ‘fun’ here with my tongue planeted firmly in my cheek).
We soon came to the end of the snowmobile trail denoted by the loop Rick had made when he turned around and doubled back in the direction he had come from. We found ourselves staring up a snow covered hill. “The snow was too deep and I couldn’t get up this part,” Rick said. “We will have to bushwhack the last little bit until we get to the ski hill.” It was too steep to climb using a ‘herringbone’ technique so I showed the kids how to side-step up the hill. When this got to be too time consuming, a couple of them popped off their skis and simply crawled up the hill. Once we broke over the top and saw the kids on the ski hill, there was a combined sigh of relief. I am pretty sure a couple of them didn’t believe me when I said, “No, we aren’t lost. Rick knows
right where we are, right Rick?” The only problem left was to get to the bottom of the ski hill on XC skis. Some of us managed to snowplow their way down and the less experienced ones walked down to the chalet.
If you are still wondering why Lee Crandall plays into how I remember when we took the first WRD, let me explain. I had no sooner stuck my skis in the snowbank by the chalet when Tom caught my attention. “Lee Crandall fell on the ice rink playing broomball and he may have broken his arm. I can’t leave the hill. Can you take him to the hospital?” We loaded Lee into the front seat of my car and I got to play ambulance driver (and (unfortunately) not for the last time over the ensuing years). Fortunately, it was the only trip required on our first WRD excursion. As we drove past the field north of the parking lot, a spirited game of Earth Ball was in progress.
I had seen Earth Ball played between teams from the various dorms om the Northern Michigan University campus across the street from my house. These games were always held on a muddy field that had been plowed up and watered for a few days before the games began. At NMU, they called this event ‘Mudfest’ and some of the games they played were, in a word, brutal. For our WRD, the eight-foot ball was placed in the middle of the snowy field.
The teams lined up on their respective goal lines and on a whistle, they all charged forward and attempted to push the monster ball across the other team’s goal line. Picture all-body soccer and you have a pretty good idea of how it looked. From my vantage point, it looked like a free-for-all that would take a good long time to resolve.
When we got to the hospital, I called Lee’s mother and said, “Don’t be alarmed, he is fine, but I had to bring Lee to the hospital. He fell on the ice rink pretty hard and may have broken a bone in his arm.” She laughed a little and said, “Oh, that’s my boy, always getting bunged up. I will be right there.” If memory serves me right, it may have been his clavicle that he broke. Once she arrived, I was on my way back to Greenland. The Earth Ball game was winding down when I drove past and parked just behind the chalet. Skiing had wound down and kids on inner tubes had taken to the hill. Skiers and tubers don’t mix well, so tubing was saved for the last part of the day.
It was rather amazing how much speed inner tubes can gather sliding down a ski hill. All was going well but the last ride scared the bejeebers out of me. A very large tube (probably from a
large truck or end loader) came rocketing down the hill with six or seven passengers. Most of the tubers would bail out before they hit the snowbank at the very bottom of the hill. For some reason, these kamikaze riders did not. They hit the bottom of the hill and continued right across the parking lot. Our buses were parked perpendicular to the hill and when the tube got to them, it kept right on going and passed right under all of them. Tom and I looked at each other and decided that was enough tubing. All I could say was, “Thank God nobody picked up their head as they passed under the bus.” That was the last time tubing took place on any of our future WRD. I am pretty sure even Heikki Lunta would have agreed with us being cautious – there is something about sliding on snow that makes thrill seekers lose their common sense.
With the clock running down on the day, Bruce herded everyone to the field where the Earth Ball game had recently been completed. The instructions were simple: “When I blow the whistle,” he said, “ everybody runs toward the other side of the field. The first one there will win first prize.” I do not remember what the fabulous prize was, nor can I recall who won the race, but it was much more competitive than I expected. There seems to be a certain type of person who excels a dashing through the snow. A pack of perhaps a dozen dashers broke out in front and by the finish line, one of them was well in front of all the rest. The day was done and everybody was loaded up to go back to school. All the way home, I kept mulling over the inner tube under the bus incident and repeated, “Thank God” a few more times.
Monday found Tom, Bruce, and I having a cup of coffee as we went over our impressions of the first WRD. The first thing I said was, “Never again will tubing be allowed!” to which my partners heartily agreed. We talked over the lack of a rope tow operator, the difficulty of the XC route, and a host of other things we figured we would have to re-think. Over all, we gave it a 90 percent approval rating – WRD was a pretty good event with a few things we would need to fine-tune.
Tom summed up our post trip evaluation by saying, “You know, I had a revelation on the way home Friday. We have a world class ski hill twelve miles away. What if we cut out the field events and skating and concentrate on downhill skiing, XC skiing, and snowshoeing? A lot of our kids ski already and we could arrange an introductory lesson for kids who haven’t. They have ski rentals available and trained ski patrol members who would be there if we needed them.” The first WRD wasn’t even a week in the rearview mirror and we had a template in place
for the second one. The change of venue to the Porcupine Mountains Ski Area gave the whole concept a new lease on life.
Tom’s vision worked so well, this became one event that everyone looked forward to. He went so far as to suggest we add a grade each year until all the JH and HS classes were involved. The number of rental skis needed would have meant spreading it out to a couple of days, but all signs pointed to this becoming reality. Unfortunately, the first year we expanded and took the ninth graders with us, an unfortunate ski accident gave the teachers advising the high school classes reservations about getting involved. When the sixth graders moved into the JH/HS building, they became part of WRD but the HS classes were never included save the one year.
One nice thing about the Porkies Ski Hill was the familiarity many local families had with the hill. We were able to arrange the schedule so when the majority of students left to return to school, those who pre-arranged their own ride home could stay at the hill until closing time. The only time this was a problem, it gave me a great war story to tell the students as a warning about playing fast and loose with the truth. With the students heading back to school, I always stayed behind to get a little longer XC ski without having to keep an eye on things back at the hill. One particular year, I skied the back XC trail to Union Spring and about the time I got home for dinner, the phone rang. An irritated voice on the other end said, “My son and his cousin didn’t come home from the ski hill. Where are they?” I said, “Let me find out and I will call you back.”
I talked with two of the other teacher chaperones and both had talked to them at the hill before the bus left. In both cases, the chaperones were told by the two students that they had arranged for a ride home and would not be taking the bus. I called the mother back to report this. Just as I was finishing my explanation, she said, “Never mind, here they come now,” and then she hung up the phone. It turned out one of the kid’s neighbors worked at the ski hill and happened to notice they were the only ones left when the ski hill shut down. They lied to him, also, saying their ride had forgot to come and get them. He graciously gave them a ride home. These two birds were not allowed on any more field trips in their JH years and nobody argued about the decision. From that point on, the form signed by parents included a part that confirmed their kids were staying or coming back on the bus. No one was allowed to change their mind on the day of the trip and we never ‘lost’ another tripper again.
Perhaps the best part of this trip was the outpouring of volunteers who came along to help with the introductory ski lessons. Some were parents while others were just people who wanted to help kids learn to ski. If they were happy learning on the beginners hill, they were free to stay there. If they had the confidence to go to the big hill, a volunteer would go with them to make sure they didn’t have any problems on their first time to the top. There were many students who were reluctant to strap on skis in the morning because sliding down a slippery slope on boards can be scary. A vast majority of them would be skiing down the big slopes by the afternoon and a good number of them would later report they went back the next day to ski some more.
In the period from 1988 until my retirement in 2018, we missed one year. The ski hill management asked us to delay our trip by a week. A committee was coming up from Lansing to see how the hill improvements they funded were coming along and the manager thought it would be great to have a bunch of kids having fun on the hill when they visited. Unfortunately, a warm spell and rain closed the hill in that extra week, but we were back at it the next winter.
This year, the Ontonagon Area Schools Winter Recreation Day took place on February 21, 2025. I am told they had a great time and I am sure that somewhere out there, the late Tom Hartzell has a big smile on his face.
Top Piece Video: From 1981, Live in Montreal, By-Tor and the Snow Dog by Rush