NORTHPORT -- Grace Corbin loves to sled.
She stretched out in a snow tube as her friend, Gemma Lerchen, 3, tried to pull her up Braman Hill in Northport.
Both girls, of Empire, had just finished sliding down together, smiling as they spun to a stop.
Despite all the activities at the Northport Winter Carnival on Saturday, Grace, 6, "didn't do anything except sledding."
Gemma's mother, Mary Lerchen, laughed.
"It's quite a hill, too," she said from the ground. "She's been having a blast."
A cold snap didn't keep the crowds away from the Leelanau County carnival, a late-winter party now in its fourth year.
With just weeks to go until spring, the sunny, blue skies also didn't hurt.
Visitors could sample chili in a cook-off contest, race up the hill in a pair of snowshoes to benefit the Northport Promise scholarship fund and compete in curling and broomball events. Children formed impromptu ice hockey games or skated on an outdoor rink.
About 40 snowmobilers took off on a late morning poker run, needing to collect seven sealed envelopes containing playing cards before they returned. Best hand won.
Later in the day, Northport students planned to race cardboard sleds they made in school, and a popular "outhouse race" would test the craftsmanship of some homemade wooden toilets.
The event launched when Jan Morgan, then a member of a local chamber of commerce, thought of the idea as a way to beat the end-of-February blahs.
It's only grown since.
"Every year, you can notice more and more people," Morgan said. "For some reason, this weekend just works out weather-wise."
Aaron Sahs and his family come every year. His son Wyatt, 5, entered a cardboard sled to race with his kindergarten class Saturday.
"Everybody's been cooped up all winter long," said Sahs, of Northport. "It's a nice time to get outside."
It was a thought shared by other carnival visitors.
Scorecard in hand, Traverse City resident Marcia Billings moved down a row of crock pots as she tasted samples of chili. Steam from the dishes was visible in the cold air.
Billings said the number of chili chefs rivaled the number of soups entered in a cook-off during the Cherry Capital Winter WonderFest in Traverse City a few weekends ago.
"On a day like this, you just have to be outside," she said. "I'll definitely come back again."
