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Mt. DellOsso: Its tubular fun, dude
SNOWTUBE4-11-22-09
Ron and Susan Dell’Osso at the top of the snow tubing hill. - photo by HIME ROMERO
Toss aside the Wii. Forget Space Mountain. This is the real deal, well except for the snow. It’s manmade.

Welcome to Mt. Dell’Osso. It isn’t Bear Valley but then who needs the drive, the hassle of tire chains, and having to trudge back up hill after each run?

It’s the only place you can snow tube in the Central Valley. And it’s the only place in California you can snow tube while wearing cargo shorts without getting wet during a rain storm.

What’s the big deal, I asked myself? So I saw a 4-year-old boy have the time of his life. It just can’t be that impressive for a 53-year-old who has done his share of snow tubing at Boreal Ridge.

Au contraire.

After just a few seconds of being pushed off the top of Mt. Dell’Osso – you try to find a place in Mother Nature that lets you start snow tubing from dry concrete with worrying about getting it wet in the rain – it no longer looked ho-hum. It was fun. Maybe it had something to do with the insanity of snow tubing at elevation 38 feet above sea level in Lathrop or perhaps it was a better way to kill time on a Friday afternoon instead of inching along in the Highway 120 Bypass eastbound back-up.

As I picked up speed heading toward 25 mph and started spinning, it dawned on me what it was. I felt like a kid. I was smiling and even laughing. I was being bounced around ever so slightly as I skimmed 18 inches of packed manmade snow. The best part is the thrill lasted long after the 20- to 30-second run was over.

The second run was even better than the first as they started me off spinning.

If it was this much fun, I could only imagine what it would be like hurling down Mt. Dell’Osso with friends or grandkids.

It also didn’t have any of the fear factor that comes with what passes today as fun such as riding roller coasters that got up, down and around in loops

Ron Dell’Osso – the idea man behind Snow on the Farm –understands the guy psyche real well. We’ll all just big kids who, if given the opportunity we can have more fun snow tubing in our own backyard than we can with any electronic toy tossed our way whether it is a wide screen or Wii.

In short – for you over 50 readers – it was tubular as in radical, awesome and righteous.