There are several ways to travel in the North Country wilderness in winter, but none is so fleeting or so rare as on skates. It takes that unusual alignment of November weather to allow for wild skating— cold, preferably below zero but not too far below zero, calm conditions, and a lack of snow.
In those early winters, like this one, when these conditions align to create the magic, it is impossible for me to resist. Yes, I’ve fallen through once before on my various adventures on frozen water, but that hasn’t been enough to discourage me from touching blade to ice when the opportunity presents itself. I just go prepared.
It’s been exceptionally mild so far this winter, with much-above average temperatures and a veritable drought of snow. But a brief cold snap just after Thanksgiving, with a couple below zero nights, gave us the gift of clear, smooth ice on many area lakes and rivers and I was intent to take advantage as long as the gods of weather allowed it.
For me, the holy grail of ice skating is being able to explore the Boundary Waters, traveling rivers and lakes, portaging where necessary. Since I use Nordic skates, long blades with a binding that clips to the bottom of a skate ski boot, portages are as simple as detaching your blades (which takes all of ten seconds), walking the portage, and reattaching your blades on the other side (another ten seconds).
My most recent adventure took me and a friend up the Hunting Shack River from the Echo Trail, into Pauline Lake and over the portage to Nigh Lake. These two relatively small lakes are part of a cluster of a half dozen lakes tucked away south of the Echo Trail, and just west of the Jeanette Lake campground. They’re located just outside of the Boundary Waters, which means they probably see fewer visitors than many lakes within the wilderness. I’d been meaning to visit them by canoe since Paul Schurke had recommended them a couple years ago, but I figured they’d make a good destination for an on-ice adventure.
We weren’t the only ones to see the advantage of a ribbon of ice. With about an inch of relatively fresh powder snow on top of the ice, the evidence of other travelers was readily apparent. We followed an otter trail most of the way to Pauline Lake before it disappeared into a small hole in the ice along the muskeg shore. A pack of wolves had also made use of the river in their own travels. Wolf tracks are easy to distinguish in fresh snow due to their large size and the telltale drag marks of their claws in the snow. Dogs tend to lift their feet higher, whereas wolves, in what I suspect is an economy of motion, barely lift their feet as they walk.
While the skating conditions weren’t perfect, the inch of powder snow that lay on top of the otherwise smooth ice, created no real impediment to our skates and we made good time heading up the river, with occasional stops to check the ice thickness. It was invariably six inches deep or more, plenty safe for skating.
It was more of the same on Pauline Lake, although occasional patches of slush or frozen slush under that inch of snow slowed our progress a bit. Nigh Lake had considerably less slush and the wind had blown a few patches clear of snow, leaving several inches of clear black ice that was a joy to skate. Both lakes were small, Nigh checks in at 41 acres with a shoreline that is almost entirely coniferous, while Pauline is not much bigger, at just 63 acres, with a shoreline that’s a bit more mixed.
I’m hoping it’s not my last Boundary Waters trek this year. If the snow continues to fall elsewhere this month, I may well be off on another on-ice adventure soon. With conditions this ephemeral, there’s no waiting for another day.