OK, say you have SOME snow but not a lot. The trails are thin. It’s been cold a week or two. Well, go find yourself a nice, meandering, woodsy lake or swamp and go for a refreshing “big sky” ski!
Our local skiing is mostly in the woods. But it’s great to get out and do some “big sky” ice skiing. Early in the season our local ice is strong enough but we have overflow issues and it can be slushy. It takes our January Melt plus a few days of extra cold temps to get our best lake skiing location into good shape.
(I’m talking about the swampy Impoundment at Rose Lake — there’s a nice paring lot to get onto it just North of the main lot on Woodbury Road.)
As long as the snow is slightly fused to the ice you can do some nice skiing on it. It can even be ice that’s still good for skating. In the fluffiest of thin conditions you probably can’t ski-skate on the ice, but if its bonded to the ice even a wee bit, you’re golden.
Lucy and I got in a delightful couple miles of wandering the nooks and crannies of the Impoundment yesterday evening. There were dozens of muskrat houses in the swamp. We bumped into a couple rookie trapper guys who were trying for a beaver. (Beavers are making a big comeback around here.)
As it got dark Lucy wanted to quit skiing and break out the ice skates, so we did. She even wanted to skate back out to the far part of the swamp to get away from the road noise coming from near where we parked. The ice was too bumpy for that. It has to be glass smooth if you’re going to skate blind, ya know.
Make sure the ice is at least 4″” thick and bring safety equipment with you (rope around waist, ice-pick-handle on loop over neck, spare clothes in car).
