by Adam Polinski
Just in case you’ve never been to Coopers Rock when there’s been snow, and you wonder when you can experience winter there, the Coopers Rock Foundation says: bet the big bucks on being able to see it and ski it, at our annual Winterfests. Six times out of seven, or 86% of the time, we’ve guessed right and had snow on the date we chose, months prior, for Coopers Rock Winterfest. This year’s edition, held on February 10th, 2018, had enough snow for sledding, making snowmen and other snow sculptures, throwing snowballs at our Snowball Target Range, and for beginners to try out cross-country skiing. It wasn’t the snowiest of conditions, as we couldn’t hold the Cross-Country Skiers’ Time Trial or Mass-Start Downhill Dash, but fun was had and nobody was sad.
WinterFest is a celebration of winter recreation at Coopers Rock, and a fund-raiser. We set up our events all around and near the Day Use Parking Lot, the only parking lot open year-round on the South Side of Coopers Rock State Forest, just ¼ mile from the I-68 Exit. The location is extremely convenient and works especially well for parents of young children, as almost all activities either occur within 200 yards of parking, or begin and end there. What if it doesn’t snow? We hold the event “Snow or No,” with a slate of snow-free events, along with the WinterFest Café.’
This year we made some changes that have established how we’ll set up from now on. Four fun kids’ activities (but NOT limited to just kids) are now clustered altogether – for non-stop action. The Snowball Target Range (see it to believe it), the Sledding Hill, the Snowman Zone, and the Paintball Biathlon Course are sure to burn off lots of Kid Energy. For that latter event, we combined what used to be the Cross-Country Skier’s Paintball Biathlon, with the Snow Obstacle Course, into the new event. Our Paintball Biathlon is now held on foot instead of skis, so that anyone can do it, and is located throughout the former Snow Obstacle Course, a patch of woods riddled with huge pits from the 19th century Iron Ore Era. Now, contestants in the Paintball Biathlon run through the pit and mound terrain-park-like 400’ course, racing against each other while carrying an ammo pouch filled with paintballs, and a slingshot, shooting at 5 targets as they go.
Tired-out kids, and parents, can repair to the Winterfest Café’ and Warming Fire, in the center of the Day Use Parking Lot. There, CRF sells food and drink to raise funds for recreational facilities at Coopers Rock State Forest. This year, the Café’, coupled with our Donation Jar, took in almost $500, thanks to event attendees! Not only do we sell baked goods and chili and hot chocolate, but we also sell some actual world-class coffee – small-batch, freshly-roasted, certified organic Kona Coffee straight from the islands, courtesy of a former CRF Board member. The International Coffee Event Rating for our WinterFest was a sky-high 98 (!) – the highest for miles around.
Our Winter Tree ID Hike, through and around the festivities, went as planned, but our other hike, the Hike To A Rock Maze, combined winter tree ID skills along with the hike through the maze – a ‘two-fer’!
The winter recreation centerpiece of WinterFest is the opportunity for people to try out cross-country skis, and snowshoes, for FREE. As we did for the first time this year, and as we will do from now on, we conducted both try-out opportunities at the same site. ‘EZ Acre’ is a sliver of forest between the I-68 off-ramp and the Day Use Lot, in which CRF (with permission) cut out 1,500’ of trail. Coupled with the 700’ linear opening, by the green, wooden “Coopers Rock Recreation Area” sign, beginners have 2,200’ of open terrain to see what these winter sports are all about, in this area that fits the bill perfectly.
Breaking down societal barriers as we do, WinterFest broke new ground this year, on the issue of gender roles in society. From the beginning, our WinterFest has held what’s become our iconic event — the Women’s Frying Pan Toss. We copied that from the Saranac Lake, NY Winterfest, which is over 100 years old. The tradition marches on, and at times we’ve had 40 women competing. But this year we heeded the call from the Men’s Equality Movement, and added a men’s-only event, in the name of equal opportunity. The first-ever Men’s Snowball Throwdown, wherein a target-hitting competition would be held at the Snowball Target Range, for men only, was to begin at High Noon. The event never occurred, however, because the organizer … got distracted elsewhere. Stay tuned for this event to break out big-time in 2019.
But wait! That’s not all!
For the first time ever, our venerated event – The Women’s Frying Pan Toss – was facilitated by an All-Male Crew. That’s right, the Emcee, The Toss Measurer, and The Pan Fetcher, were all dudes of the male persuasion.
New for this year is that we have established the Course Record. This year’s winner, Melissa Adkins, not only won herself a custom-made, indoor-outdoor trophy in the form of a hand-painted frying pan, but she also now holds the first official Course Record, with a toss of 60 feet and some inches. Will it be broken in 2019? The countdown begins.
We’re rolling the dice right NOW, and committing to Saturday, February 9th, 2019, for our 8th Annual Coopers Rock WinterFest. If we succeed and go 7-out-of-8 for snowy Winterfests, we’ll be rockin’ an 88% winning percentage. Place your bets on the table, and place that date on your calendars. Time Waits For Snowman.
