Rats in Snow @ Sandy Pond Parts 2 & 3

The people of the Nature Conservancy, that stalwart gatekeeper of the sand, might develop a little heartburn over this post.

Directly across from the Bayview Hotel, owned by Mike Gianetti in those days, was a GIANT of a sand dune on the peninsula separating North Pond from Lake Ontario. Unfortunately, it has eroded down to an unremarkable formation over the years. We loved to play on it. A favorite test for snowmobiles was to see if you could climb it to the top. I've seen more than one sled rolling down that dune...the old '68 MOTO-SKI couldn't do it, but later I had a '69 Bombardier Olympic with the peppy 18HP ROTAX engine. After I geared it for trail (16 tooth drive sprocket for the chain got-r-done) I could blast that sled up that dune. It was glorious...

On this day, once we got to Sandy Island Beach, we had some fun sliding down the giant sand dune that is no longer there... At the beginning of Part 3, I'm on the toboggan . We estimated the speed of the toboggan at 30MPH going down this dune. It was a challenge to get back up to the top...

The last minute of Part 3 records the topography of the southern section of North Sandy Pond, the peninsula, and Lake Ontario side as it was that year. Notice how high the view is looking across to the Bayview shore from the top of the once GIANT dune.

There were rumors in the late '70s that hired men in dump trucks stole a lot of the sand from this dune and another long one just south of it in order to build up some rich lawyer's property on the lake side of the peninsula (his cottage eventually burned down anyway). Many areas that were bare sand on the lake side are now covered with the grasses the college students and green people have planted over the years.

Part 2

Part 3