The Observation Deck

I know this subject comes up during the winter months. My kids have outgrown the dinky hill at Kaufmann park. We tried Edgewater but is very dangerous because of the rocks on either side of the bike path. I found the #11 hole at Big Met golf course to be just right. It's a big wide open space with no rocks and not too steep. And we were the only ones there!

I'm gonna find my sled and head on down there!!!!!!! (And, I will not shriek or scream)

Hole 11 at Big Met was my favorite spot growing up. My kids also like the one next to the Westlake Rec Center, although that one's pretty steep so it might be better suited for older kids.

My kids and I like the hill on Memphis across from Tiedeman. Wide open space, few trees with which to collide, had a great time there this morning! Was very packed and FAST!

Locally, my kids liked Edgewater, but they had good sleds and started from the shoreway, flying over what is now the bike path and out onto the beach and the ice.

For special treats we drove to Virginia Kendall which is now in the Cuyahoga Valley Recreational Area.

Charlie--

That's one of the funniest videos I've ever seen-- or I guess I should say-- heard. I can't believe your daughter could scream for that long. It's hilarious, the short pause, and then another scream covering the whole hill. My kids have watched this over and over laughing more each time, thanks for posting this video. It looks like a great hill.


Will--

We go to Edgewater too, in fact were there the same day Charlie was at Little Met, I think, but the snow wasn't great. So when you guys went sledding you just boldly headed towards the lake from the highway? Wasn't there a big jump there at the bottom as you got to the beach?

We were taking the more dangerous path I guess, because there was so little snow we just went wherever we could. We headed east with the lake to our left, though my kids made a couple of hairpin turns towards the beach.

What I like about Edgewater is that when you're tired of sledding (or too bruised) you can head to the beach and see the frozen lake. We had a great time exploring-- some water had frozen into a huge ice pond in the middle of the beach, we were skating! Sitting on top of a frozen wave drinking hot chocolate is the best.

Christina--

I thought that hill was tremendously steep over there. Maybe I'm just thinking about driving up it in my car on the way to the Kiddie Park.

My pictures aren't so great but here they are:

Yes, portions of their run at Edgewater were airborne, but they had good sleds that were very controllable; I think the aluminum woks they sell as sleds now would not be suited to that route.

I still have one of those sleds down my basement; it started as my wife's, and lasted through her, her sister, and our three kids. Our next generation lives in California, so they probably won't want it. I thought of using it my self, but when I tried to go sledding in Switzerland (a 17 km run as I recall) I soon discovered I'm not as young and flexible as I used to be.

As we are once again talking of sledding hill, I have brought back the Sharkey's Hill Story, with an update coming soon!

"You Really Should Have Been Here Yesterday"
by Jim O'Bryan

Last week a Lakewood Observer reporter asked why Lakewood didn't have a
good sledding hill.
"Sledding Hill!" I turned and said, "Sledding Hill! We had one of the best."
"That little hill at Kauffman?" the reporter queried.
I looked and stared deep into her eyes and said, "No, Sharkey's Hill."
The room fell silent. A couple of the long time residents turned pale with a look
similar to that of a child who just saw a ghost.
"That name sounds a little scary," she said.
"That's nothing compared to the Real Thing," I remarked.

Sharkey's Hill, for those who do not know, ran down the side of the cliff on Riverside
Drive. That's right, straight down the cliff on a slight angle with only a small curve
at the end. But again it was down the cliff from Riverside Drive right down to the river,
and hopefully not in it!


Sharkey Hill with some typical people at various levels to give you a feel for
the length and drop. 1, is where the pros started, because at #2, you had to negotiate
a wall/log so you could jump, or go up the cliff behind where #2 is standing and shoot
down the hill. #3 is where most started and while it might appear farther down the hill
at it is, the hill is so long, you only loose maybe 20%, but a lot of speed.

As a person that grew up near "The Hill," I soon became a little jaded about riding it
down, after breaking my cherry at a very young age.
Growing up on Riverside meant that you could climb the cliff like the monkeys of Malta.
We often joked, "You know what they a call a kid stuck on the cliff?"
"Tourist" we would all chime in.

Each year the city would pull off kids from Rocky River, Bay, Cleveland, but almost never
one from Lakewood. A Lakewood kid would rather fall down and break a leg or collar bone,
than get dragged off the cliff by the police.

After sliding down the cliffs in summer, I found Sharkey's was easier on the pants, bones
and hands. But to the wash-a-shores and "tourists," Sharkey's was unbelievable.
Imagine the look tourists give the surfers at Waimea Bay in Hawaii during Big Surf. Sure
we all want to ride one, but at what cost?

Every day another group of kids would show up, walk to the edge and just turn white.
You would see them mumble. Catch that nervous laugh. Then half the time the group
would leave. I mean, who wants to die sledding?

And death was everywhere on "The Hill."


This shot is taken from #3 area shows just how far and fast the hill drops.
It has a slight curve and a very radical crown you will see later. So that it is always
pitching you one way or the other at an incredible speed.

There was always the talk "¦ "You really should have been here yesterday." "I heard
a kid died yesterday." "They took a guy out of here on a stretcher, wasn't moving much."
This talk always uncorked around the fire located at the top of the "short" hill. I say short
because it only really chopped 30 feet off the top, but what a 30 feet that was.

What added to the total mystique of the place was the fact that the hill was a real
sled-breaker. As riders broke their sleds they would throw them up into the trees where
they would hang looking like skeletons of the dead. At dusk these sled skeletons would
come to life in a macabre dance of death moving back and forth through the trees as the
fire flickered.


This photo is taken 2/3rds of the way to #4 from #3, and shows the second
jump and sled breaker #5 that drops another 25' and empties into a 50' field and a river.
That 50' ends a hell of a lot faster than you would think. You have to come down from
the second jump, feet dragging while hoping the sled is even working.

Before any ride you would first climb down to a lower level. From there you could see
the condition of the hill"”icy, powdery, rutted or just plain nasty.
As you slid down the side and approached the fire, someone would yell "off." Then
another coated person was off down the hill.

Along the left would be those who had made it, trudging up the hill. What always
made this interesting was the possibility that at any minute a sled and rider could
separate. Worse yet, the rider could lose control, smashing into anyone or anything.

Hazards included other sleds, rocks and trees. Or the rider might simply go over the
cliff! At one point the city put a barricade up to stop sledders. Seeing this as a kind
of ski jump, inventive kids would make the barricade into a small hill.


A shot up the hill from 4 shows the curve, the crown, the trees on both
sides! That is number 3 behind the trees way up the hill.

But the pros, real pros, mind you, would start at the top, push off and even take a
running start. Then they would throw their sleds down with a thud and jump on.
In a matter of seconds you had to make a life-and-death choice. Jump the barricade
and with luck miss the large posts. Or turn hard right and go up the cliff around
the post and down the cliff again. To jump the barricade and head up the hill added
speed to the ride. To move up the cliff and back down was tougher, however,
always leading to incredible speeds.

There was always talk of speeds in excess of 50 mph. Nobody, at least to my knowledge,
ever put a radar detector to the sleds on Sharkey's Hill. Just as you would get control
of your body and sled back, there was a dip that threw you to the right and back to
the center. You would hold your breath as you entered another depression before sending
you up and over a small jump that would turn into a full JUMP as the snow and sledding
continued.

The landing was actually smoother than the ski-style jump over the barricade, and it is
easy to understand why. By this point you are traveling three times faster, and the sled
would stay airborne for 10-30 feet! And then the sled might possibly settle down. For the
forces were so incredible on the sled and rider that this point was where they usually
separated, or simply fell apart, wishing they had never started.


From 3 back to the top.

Once you made it into the bottom depression and the ride was over, you had to apply
full brakes, drag your body, and stop the sled before it ran into the icy river. Each time
a rider made it to the bottom without carrying into the river, even the most experienced
ones would let loose a huge sigh of relief. You would catch your breath, look around,
smell the air, wildly thankful you were still alive. Getting up, you would brush off the
snow, grab your sled (or what was left of it) and head up the hill ready to dive out of
the way if someone lost control. Just to tame "The Hill" one more time.

Sharkey's was legendary, our Waimea Bay. Sharkey's was where men went to feel alive.

I looked over to the reporter and smiled, saying, "Yeah we had a hill. You really
should have been here yesterday."


Sharkey's Hill this afternoon, as I try my first run down in decades!
Stay Tuned!



.

Sharkey's was a good hill, steep but a bit short, unless you were willing to get wet. The problem with it when I was a kid was that the police showed up regularly to chase you away. I drive by now and can't remember just where it was, but I seem to recall that it is posted now. Somehow it doesn't make sense to close a good ski hill and build a skate park. They used to close the road by Fairview park hospital into the valley for sledding, and that was a good hill, with curves if you were willing to take the risk.

Will Brown wrote:Sharkey's was a good hill, steep but a bit short, unless you were willing to get wet. The problem with it when I was a kid was that the police showed up regularly to chase you away. I drive by now and can't remember just where it was, but I seem to recall that it is posted now. Somehow it doesn't make sense to close a good ski hill and build a skate park. They used to close the road by Fairview park hospital into the valley for sledding, and that was a good hill, with curves if you were willing to take the risk.

Will remember those hills fondly too. It is a shame they ruined them with the new ranger station. There was 4 runs from what
I remember. A little training hill for kiddies, a little bigger hill, a hill with a jump that broke my toboggan, and then the crazy
hill that ran from Lorain and Wooster, to the bottom. Again at the top was that large cement square thing that you could launch off of, make a correction and then just hang on as it was a real speed demon!

However, as Sharkey's actually runs alongside the cliff not straight down so is about twice as long as the long run there..

Yes what ever happened to the promised ski/sledding slope at Stinchcomb?

.

Hey Jim,

The next time you see my dad ask him about that hill...and me.... and the sled.....

jennifer scott wrote:Hey Jim,

The next time you see my dad ask him about that hill...and me.... and the sled.....

I might do that today at Kiwanis! I might be able to marry it to the new photos that prove the old
hill has not lost any of its speed, romance or ability to completely destroy sleds.

After many days of searching for a proper Flexible Flyer, in only took a couple runs to turn it into
trash, and a bill I must now pay!

Damn!


.

Apparently the powers that be have decreed that sledding is dangerous, and skateboarding is not.

There might be something to it. If you go to a sledding hill now you see few decent sleds; you see kids going down the hill on cardboard, garbage can lids, and giant aluminumb woks, none of which is controllable.

And I don't know if global warming is the culprit, but there is less good sledding weather now than in my youth. I can recall long periods of good sledding, playing hockey in Lakewood Park, and playing hockey on the lagoon in Clifton Park. All gone, all gone.

Metro Parks Berea.


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I would love to take my kids to the 11th hole at Big Met but where do I park?

Thanks,
Corey