LONGSWAMP TWP., Pa. – With snow quickly retreating, Bear Creek Mountain Resort held its annual cardboard box race Sunday earlier than originally planned and in a new location.
Participants could only use cardboard, duct tape and zip ties in assembling their craft, which then had to survive multiple runs down a melting hill at least partially intact.
Originally scheduled for next week, Bear Creek Mountain moved up the race earlier this month as it became clear this winter's snow would soon disappear.
The resort in Berks County, not far off Route 100 from the Lehigh County line, will soon bid farewell to its wintertime activities. Skiing will end for the season after next Sunday, if not sooner – temperatures are forecast to reach the mid 60s for much of later this week.
With warming weather over the past week and rain practically all day Saturday, it wasn’t clear at times whether Sunday's fun could be held at all, organizers said. Bear Creek Mountain’s snow tubing run, usually used for the cardboard sleds, already showed sizable patches of grass.
But enough snow remained on one of the resort’s bunny slopes for two racing lanes marked by piled-up walls of snow. A break Sunday in the sleet and rain showers lasted until just before the final heat.
"We wanted to send it down the mountain."Pepper Swartz, of Swartz Family Racing
For many participants, the moved-up date meant reusing an entry from last year or assembling their entry quickly.
“We only had a couple hours to put it together and got out here,” said Macungie resident Nik Kelly, who co-built and co-piloted a sled modeled after an x-wing fighter from Star Wars.
“I think it turned out great,” he said of its performance. “A lot better than what I was expecting.”
Because the new improvised course could only hold two racers at a time — fewer than in years past — the winning sled would have to survive even more punishment than usual.
A family from Coopersburg –- team name “Swartz Family Racing” –- claimed the crown in a slick cardboard-and-duct-tape toboggan.
They designed their cardboard craft with speed in mind, said team member Pepper Swartz:
“We wanted to send it down the mountain.”
Another sled styled as a Lego brick, with a passenger donning a cardboard exoskeleton modeled after the company’s iconic plastic people, won the title of “most creative” entry from a panel of judges.
