Skating to New York
I had heard the stories. "Yes sir, one winter it was so cold you could ice skate clear across Lake Champlain to New York. We don't have real winters like that anymore."
I used to think that "real winters" were a thing of the past, but now I know better. Because one morning last March I went down to the lake and skated to New York and back. After a quick lunch, I did it again. That's right, two round trips in one day.
Skaters from all across central and northern Vermont wet gliding across wide expanses of smooth lake ice last winter. Now, with cold weather approaching, they're sharpening their blades and gearing up to do it again.
"Early season ice? There's a lot of it," says lake skater Phelps Holloway of South Hero. "You could skate several different ponds a day. But go to the mouth of the Missisquoi River, or Arrowhead Lake, and you can entertain yourself for a whole day in one spot."
Then there's Lake Champlain. As the sixth-largest lake in the US, Champlain offers an amazing variety of ice conditions. A 100-mile-long lake doesn't freeze solid in one night; it takes two months from start to finish. You can follow the advancing ice shelves as they slowly cover the lake, beginning at sheltered spots like Sand Bar State Park in Milton, and progressing south across Malletts Bay and north toward Canada. Suppose your favorite "plate" of ice was just buried under a big dump of snow? No problem. There's always a newer, freshly-formed plate not far away.
The biggest plate of all, and the last one to ice over, is the "broad lake", a term applied to the 10-mile-wide swath between the Burlington breakwater and the New York shore. It's an elusive prize. Even on the coldest days in January, wind-whipped waves race across the broad lake. The churning water can't freeze, because it's in perpetual motion. What does it take to freeze the broad lake? An extended period of severe cold with no wind, usually in early February. Sometimes the wind returns too soon and breaks the new ice into chunks that slam together and refreeze into a jumble of "pack ice". But once the ice on the broad lake has reached a critical thickness, the wind turns from foe to friend. It scours off the snow and polishes the surface. This is a world glimpsed from aloft by pilots, but rarely experienced firsthand. Black ice on the broad lake is pure ecstasy. Smooth as an indoor rink, transparent, 12 to 24 inches thick, for miles in all directions. The Adirondacks and Green Mountains spread out in front of you. And on a windless day, when you're five miles from the nearest road, you can't hear a sound. To venture out five miles from civilization, you must be well-prepared and self-sufficient, with enough food, water, warm clothes, ice safety equipment and expertise to get out there and back safely. #1 on the equipment list is a good pair of lake skates. Hockey and figure skates don't cut it. Nordic Skates made in Sweden are the best. #2 on the list is a pair of Nordic skating poles. Like harpoons, these multipurpose poles have aluminum shafts and sharp steel tips designed for puncturing ice. You gauge the ice's strength with a simple puncture test. If a single thrust of your pole penetrates the ice and hits the water underneath, then the ice is too weak. Nordic skating poles also help you keep your balance crossing bands of pack ice. And you can "double pole" if your legs get tired or if the ice turns to mush on a warm day. Nordic skating poles are the proverbial ounce of prevention, but it's smart to bring the cure too -- Ice Claws and a throw bag. You can use the Ice Claws to pull yourself out of a hole in the ice, and the throw bag to pull someone else out. But you'll never need to use them if you're diligent with your poles. Lake Champlain's ice is riddled with pressure ridges. They resemble earthquake fault zones, where shifting ice sheets ram into each other and heave chunks of ice skyward -- or sink them underwater. Pressure ridges can be strikingly beautiful. "When the collision of two plates thrusts up a bunch of blocks," Phelps Holloway says, "the sun and wind melt and polish them like glass. It's like touring the Steuben Glass Works." But pressure ridges can also be extremely dangerous, because the ice is constantly in motion. The only way to cross a pressure ridge is by probing with your skating poles to find a safe route. You might be tempted to approach the Charlotte or Grand Isle ferry crossings for a closer look. Don't even think of it. But if you stay a safe distance away -- at least a quarter-mile -- you can race the ferry across the lake, and win. Here are a few ideas for day trips on Lake Champlain. The nonprofit Montshire Skating Club organizes lake tours every winter. Join a tour and you'll be escorted across a spectacular winter landscape. If you don't join a tour, it's your job to determine if the ice is safe. Split Rock Mountain: Start at the Cedar Beach fishing access in Charlotte, just south of the ferry terminal. Skate west through Converse Bay to the broad lake. Just a mile ahead of you on the New York shore are the palisades of Split Rock Mountain, a rugged, roadless forest preserve full of precipices and waterfalls. Once you pass Garden Island at the mouth of Converse Bay, test the ice carefully. If the broad lake is safe, cross to the New York shore and skate south along the palisades. This is familiar territory for lake skater Lee Weisman of Charlotte. According to Weisman:: "Barn Rock Harbor is the first deep bay you come to going south past the Palisades. At the entrance to the harbor is a huge vertical rock as 'big as a barn,' hence 'Barn Rock.' It's a protected bay with a campsite and privy. Trails lead up along an old steep rail incline to an abandoned granite quarry that feels frozen in time. They used to send huge granite blocks down the incline in rail cars (one goes down as one comes up) to be shipped out from the harbor. A steam engine was used as a brake, and it failed one terrible day. The empty car came racing up and killed four men. The mine was shut down thereafter and remains as you see it today, with huge granite blocks in various stages of being cut and moved. The trail up connects with a whole network that covers the mountain. What a gift!"
After several miles, the vertical cliffs give way to tamer forested shoreline as you approach the village of Westport. Take off your skates and climb up to the town park, where you can enjoy views across the lake to the Green Mountains. On the return trip, either retrace your outbound route along Split Rock Mountain, or cross the lake to picturesque Basin Harbor on the Vermont shore. Then follow the Vermont shore back to Converse Bay.
Four Brothers: Start at the former Coast Guard station on the Burlington waterfront, just north of the ECHO Center. Skate through the gap in the breakwater and aim your blades west-southwest toward Juniper Island about one mile offshore. As you pass Juniper's high cliffs, be alert for pressure ridges. If the ice is still safe, set your sights on the Four Brothers, a cluster of small islands not far from the New York shore. The Four Brothers, also ringed by pressure ridges, are home to a nesting colony of cormorants that have somehow killed all the pine trees on the islands. If the weather's good and you're not ready to head back, turn to the northwest and skate to Schuyler Island just off the New York shore near Port Kent. Schuyler sometimes has spectacular upthrust ice formations along its eastern shore.
Inland Sea: The "Inland Sea" begins at the Sand Bar in Milton and stretches north to the Canadian border along the east side of the Lake Champlain Islands. When there's good ice and no wind, Dave Hansen skates east from Grand Isle, and Ken Emery skates west from Milton. Off the south tip of Savage Island, they meet. Their mission: To find the best ice for sailing. "Iceboating has always been my first love, but now skating is a close second," Emery says. "I can skate 30 miles in a day, or I can sail 100."
One morning last March, a diverse group of skaters from five states and two foreign countries assembled at Sand Bar State Park. Our goal: To skate 30 miles on the Inland Sea. It had rained overnight, there were puddles on the ice, but the surface was hard. So we skated north, toward Canada. A cold front was approaching, but conditions were still ideal. As we approached Cedar Island the wind started to blow. It was a crosswind, from the west. We skated past Fish Bladder Island to Savage Island and stopped for a snack on the east shore, sheltered from the breeze. A few flakes of snow were drifting down. As we passed the north tip of Savage the wind freshened and the snow fell more heavily. We were crossing the most exposed swath of the Sea, four miles across. We continued on, unaware that we were being pushed farther and farther to the east.
At last we reached the shelter of Burton Island in St. Albans Bay. We rested and regrouped; it was definitely time to turn around and head south. Except, because of our easterly drift on the outbound leg, we were now heading more westerly, into the wind. And the snow was starting to stick to the ice. It was a tough slog, but once we got to Savage, we finally turned southward. With the wind at our backs, we literally flew across the drifting snow past Fish Bladder and Cedar Islands and back to the Sand Bar. Safe at last!
This winter I wish you sunshine, black ice and a tailwind everywhere you go.
Jamie Hess is a founding member of the Montshire Skating Club (www.nordicskating.org). His new video, "Nordic Skating: Winter's Newest Edge," features scenes from Lake Champlain, Lake Morey and other locations in Vermont, New Hampshire and Quebec. Produced by Jeff Tolbert, the video is available on both DVD and VHS.
Nordic Skates are available at the Ski Rack in Burlington, or from Nordic Skater in Norwich, (866) 244-2570 or www.nordicskater.com.
