Danny Shelburne (left) and Doug Tompkins "working" at the toboggan run during a December winter weekend in the mid-1970s.The toboggan run shot down a clearing running downhill and in the southern direction from cabins 21-25. It had been cleared of trees to make way for power lines (the lines, now buried, are no longer there). It had been graded and grooved, and we sent weekend guests down 3 and 4 and 5 at a time on one of the maybe 15 toboggans we had. At the bottom of hill was a lean-to - which had been used for summer activities such as "Nature" and "Indian lore" in the 60s but was most commonly referred to, even in the summer, as "the Toboggan Shed." There was a working pot-bellied wood stove in it, and indeed the toboggans and some sleds were stored there.
When the snow was scarce (for about 3 winters in the early to mid-seventies we had very little snow--cold but little snow) we shoved ice and snow on the run and even occasionally watered it, just to have some kind of surface on it. (Later FV acquired snow-making machines.) The run got super-fast and was exciting but also incredibly dangerous. We stacked bails of hay along each side, to keep people from squirting off the course into the woods (and smashing into trees, which happened fairly regularly). Of course with all that watering (and the warming and cooling temps) the bails of hay eventually became hard as rocks, making the journey down still more perilous, the rider a pinball bumping its way through a bonkers pinball machine.
Add to that the hilarious Laurel-and-Hardy-like nonchalance (and occasionally--why not say it?--the downright laziness) of these two characters, Danny Shelburne and Doug Tompkins, and you got a FV activity area that seemed, to the weekend visitors, truly akin to Evel Knievel's leap across the Grand Canyon. They loved it and feared it - and we of course (e.g. during dining hall announcements) trumped up the fear and fervor with hysterical narratives of insane heroism, folly, recklessness, life-long phobias only realized mid-course, bizarre close calls, and stupendous feats.
