Pond ice skating

[Bumpsis]

Any open ice skating ethusiasts on this board? I'm refering to ponds, lakes etc.

I just love skating on any frozen pond, the bigger the surface the better. The feeling of just ripping along at a good clip across a big, open ice is just awesome. I delight in being able to skate in any direction I want and usually with no crowds around me - such a contrast to the public skating at local rinks.

We have had a nice strech of cold which built up decent (safe) ice on many ponds an lakes. But the problem is to find a good strech of really smooth ice. The last precipitation and a mini thaw about a week ago or so, messed up the ice a bit.

Any nice streches of good ice in the Boston metro and the burbs? Anybody wishes to share?
OK, I'll start with my "secret" ice: Lake Pongapoag - part of the Blue Hills in Canton.
No hassle with access and parking, no developed land around it, so it looks wild.

 

[Skier75]

Well, we're a little too far you. We have ice skating right out in front of our house, since we live right on a small pond....shoveled off enough for us to do a little skating. The past few days though have been pretty cold and windy for skating. Pond ought to pretty safe by now though, eh?

 

[cbcbd]

Lol, I just came back from a night skating session at the Mianus river, 15 minutes from here.

Couldn't really see the puck very well, I'll be back tomorrow right before it gets dark

 

[Marc]

My parents have a pond we skate on, my grandparents have a real big one made by beavers and muskrat we skate on...

Unfortunatley, despite the ice now being quite thick, that snow we had a week ago was followed by periods of sleet, making it impossible to shovel. Oh well.



I really like outside skating too, I used to do it a lot in college at Elm Park in Worcester and before that on various ponds around Woodstock. Bummer though when you flying around as fast as you can go and you hit a stick half frozen in the ice. All part of the experience I guess.

At least we get to skate on it and we don't have to harvest it like my grandfather's generation did.

 

[Paul]

my grandparents have a real big one made by beavers

I much prefer pond skating to rink. We sometimes head over to Lake Pocotopaug in town. Its a pretty large lake, so there's virtually unlimited area to cover. Its also fun to watch the ice boats race on it. The only drawback is the asshats on the snowmobiles. When they get going, its time to leave...

 

[Brettski]

Well, we finally have pond ice

Essex Fells in NJ has their own Pond they maintain...they have a mini jeep to plow it along with snow blowers...and these machines that have big cylindrical brush on a gas powered machines that look like now blowers that polishes the ice...

I love pond hockey