Ask Mr. Answer Person: "Where should we go tobagganing in Decorah?" (Reader suggestions)

Mr. Answer Person recently admitted defeat in coming up with any ideas for a place for Jim to take visiting relatives tobogganing in Northeast Iowa.  Fortunately, two decorahnews.com readers had suggestions:

"I have noticed many children over the Christmas break sledding behind 
the Luther College Barn at the old Jewell Farmstead.   People are also using the area on the dike near the Twin Bridges area, as well as the 
hill in the housing addition above the Park Maintenance buildings."

Another reader e-mails:

We live in Ridgeway and there is nowhere for my boys to go sledding.  But we have gone on the dike by Aase Haugen and by the skate park next to East Side Garage. 
 
Mr. Answer Person says: The drawback of these locations is that they are not public sledding hills.  In other words, the property owners might be less than thrilled to be exposed to the liability that comes from having kids and adults head down steep hills on sleds or toboggans.  If you go to a hill on private property, be prepared to get chased away!

Here are two other ideas that involve lengthy drives, but are better equipped for sledding:

"There is a sledding hill on Highway 13, about 15 miles north of Strawberry Point next to the Osborne Nature Center/Iowa Welcome Center at 29862 Osborne Road.  When you're done sledding, you can warm up in the Welcome Center."

"If you don't mind a drive, there is a ski hill with a tubing section outside of Sparta, Wisconsin as a part of Fort McCoy.  Whitetail Ridge Ski Lodge is the name.  We love winter and spending time in the snow, so bring on all hills, big and small."