I was heading to Unity Pond, but thought I'd check how yesterday's 2" of Lake St. George ice had grown. Voila! a solid 3 inches everywhere I checked, covered by a full inch of fluffy stuff. Wind 2-4Kn from west, so I put on the skates, tuned up the skimbatt and had some lazy reaches across the Northern bay.
All wind-driven toys are irksome without sufficient wind. With a skimbatt, you end up holding up the wing, instead of it lifting you. So it was time for an S&S break. (snack and snooze) The wind was predicted to rise.....
I woke an hour later with someone calling from shore. A policeman was beckoning me from the boat-launch ramp and explained that 2 people had called in reports of my demise. I explained my safety precautions: 50 years experience with ice.. (why do we feel compelled to exagerate to police officers?) cell phone in plastic bag in upper pocket... ice claws...flight plan filed with family members...and more than anything, MY HACHETTE. many holes chopped in my play area, none giving less than 3 inches. and ice that was totally quiet: not the slightest alarming sound.
He grudgingly allowed me to proceed, and with wind slightly building, I passed another happy hour carving up that lovely virgin snow and watching my shadow grow in the lowering afternoon sun. Then, in an instant, the sun eclipsed behind a snow cloud, dime-sized flakes began lazily swirling, and my once-benign environment compared poorly with the thought of foamy hot chocolate at the local convenience store.
So, I'm keen to hear how the lads did on Unity. Maybe less snow and more wind.
What a great start to winter we're having. It's only December 8!
the treas.

Dear Fellow Icelovers,

It seemed important to follow up on the marginally thick ice reported yesterday, so Lloyd and I loaded the axes and skates and headed to Lake St. George State Park on Rt.3 between Belfast and Augusta.

Sure enough, yesterday's 1.5" thick ice had become 2" in the -5 degree evening temps and we merrily skated around the northern bay which borders the State Park. We never found anything less than 2", with only a dusting of snow on the top. The wetted out cracks made an interesting highway effect:



Then on to Unity Pond. We first went to the western side I had skated on Thursday, where the access is off of "Prairie Rd". There the 3" shore ice had grown to 4" and the offshore ice had grown from 2" to 3". There had been no snow accumulation beyond the 1/4 " of yesterday.

But, rather than skating there, Lloyd was keen to check out our usual boat launch area near the center of town, on some street like "Kalakonos" which leads west off the junction of RT 139 and RT 202.

There, we found 2" of very nice ice and proceeded to skate our hearts out. We interupted 2 eagles making a quick meal of a cormorant, and later found the skimmed-over hole where they had attacked the bird and dragged it into the air.

Though the ice was still marginal; the enormous size of the plate, that broody, gray, late December afternoon, the tiny snowflakes falling, all combined to make the silent glide-filled hours worth every mile of the 40 mile drive. The only hole we found in the miles of skating was skinned over with 1.25" of ice. Later, we found this interesting rock outcropping:


The high teens night-time temps predicted for Unity tonight will perhaps add additional thickness for safer skimbatting and perhaps for even careful iceboating. The slight snow showers probably won't kybosh things, but I plan to call Jim MacDonald who lives on the lake in the morning, before heading North.

For anyone not wishing to go the additional 20 miles to Unity, certainly Lake St. George is great skating.

As much as I love iceboating and skimbatting, sometimes skating itself seems like the ultimate communion with a frozen pond. Today was such a day!
For the few of you who might feel they are hopeless on skates, I include a post from a few years ago, about building weak-ankle-proof nordic skates, which might possibly jump-start your skating prowess. You can see the skates in question in the second photo above.

I hope we will see some of you over the weekend. All the best, the treas.


an iceboater goes skating:
March 4, 2006
To: iceboaters

I'm a lousy iceskater, skating with lace-up hockey skates,
collapsible hiking poles, a helmet, and occasionally even knee and
elbow pads.
yet as a lover of ice, I find that even with great ice, there are
three times when iceboating just doesn't work: you have a short time
slot and don't want to set up an iceboat. there isn't the slightest
huff of wind. or it's so bitter cold or wind-chilled that only
bodily movement will keep you happy.
So with advice from my techno-menturs, I called 1-866-244-2570 and
talked to Jamie, an iceboater/skater in Norwich, VT. his web site is
nordicskater.com. He recommended chinese knock-off nordic multi-
skates, 55 cm blade length, for $100 plus $10 shipping, which strap
to hiking boots. these skates, which you wouldn't actually use with
hiking boots since more ankle support is needed, have a handy wider
platform than the other choices. They are also almost as hard as the
scandinavian counterparts, being hardness 55 instead of 57. Bam!
they arrived the next day!
I scoured the thrift shops and bought roller blades in the right
shoe size and also thinsulite insulated liners which fit in them.
the original roller blade liners do not anticipate cold. I sawed
thru the rivets, and, removing the roller blade truck, mounted my new
skate blades.
then i tried them out, and came back and re-adjusted the position
of the blades fore and aft, raised the heel a little, angled them to
compensate for my slightly splayed feet, and eurika! skating moved
into overdrive! I used foam pipe insulation to snap over and protect
the blades.
you immediately notice some changes: with 21 inches of blade, on
the recovery you have to lift the skate higher. being closer to the
ice, there is less load on the ankles. they make a different sound.
But there are three fantastic differences: the much greater length
and absence of rocker smoothes out rough ice. the added length of
the runner gives you so much more confidence about falling forward or
back. And the thinner blade cuts easily thru snow pack if it isn't
too thick.
I wish i could report that these skates made a good skater out of
me. i'm still a stumble-bunny out there. but now the sport has
taken on an added joy. maybe a good skatesail is next.
Heading out iceboating on Damiscotta lake this morning.

Many thanks to Jim MacDonald, for his recent tip about possible ice on Unity Pond. This pond is about 20 miles NW of Belfast, and is a little closer than Plymouth, which is, we assume under deep snow.

The challenge is to find a pond which has frozen AFTER the arrival of that foot of snow.

So I loaded the gear and headed upcountry:

Howe Hill Road Swamp: 2" ice, 2"slush, 7" snow. Dangerous

Mansfield Pond, near Alfred lake: the same

Alfred Lake sighted from afar: 2/3 open water. presumed dangerous

Lake St. George: 1.5" ice with tiny amount of snow. cracks leaking water spiderwebbing the surface of the lake. Two good nights of cold temps and this could be a great playground. It might even be worth looking at Friday morning, though it's a long shot.

Unity Pond: First I checked the north boat launch area, which is off "Prairie" to the west of the lake, 0.2Miles along the road after the railroad crossing. A little public park fenced in with a picnic table. 3" of ice near shore. 2" of ice 100 yards off shore. 1/4 " snow on top.
Skated for an hour near shore. very fast ice. muffled zipper cracking on the 2" ice. no sounds from the 3" ice. This enormous lake could be skatable on Friday, possibly iceboatable on Saturday. (beware: I'm quite an optimist!)
Later I checked our usual boat launch area, which is down a long western road leaving Rt 202 just north of Rt 139. There, only 2" of ice. I suspect the West side of the lake, being in the lee of West and Northwest winds, froze earlier than this Eastern side.

Checked Megunticook, which appeared totally frozen over, on the way home, from the barrett's cove boat launch ramp. 1.2" of ice.

I'll bet we're on the ice somewhere over the weekend.

The Treas.