Northeast kingdom pond hopping report 11/25
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Evan Perkins
Nov 25, 2023, 8:55:38 PM11/25/23
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I had a great day, Skating, some beautiful ponds in my local area. I have posted about some of them already, but I thought I would list them all in one post in case folks are planning to make a trip over tomorrow. Tommorrow will be the last day of Skating for the time being until we see what happens after the next storm and thaw . I will list the ponds from south to north.
Kettle pond- kettle pond in Groton located along route 232 is a lovely, mostly wild pond that is almost a mile and a half long in length. Respond has ample parking and requires about a five minute walk-in on a trail which is flat) Kettle has great ice quality(good quality, orange peel). the first half of the pond until it narrows had about 2 inches of ice on it today, with a few shallow rocks and large drain holes, which were thinner, but easily identified by black ice. The second half of the pond looked like it had ice all the way down on the north shore, but it was open on the south shore. And as of today impassable all the way through because of thin ice , more info in my previous post. My recommendation for this pond is that you hit this one first tomorrow because it would be best to do in the colder morning as it is the thinnest ice of all of the ponds I am listing.
Fosters pond in Peacham is located off of Macs Mountain Road and Lanesborough Road, this pond requires an all-wheel-drive vehicle to get in and out. Fosters is a lovely little pond with about 2 1/2 inches of nice orange peel, and very few hazards. Very wild with only a couple little cabins. Well worth the drive in.
Keiser pond in Peacham has great ice quality (good orange peel)and easy road access with the fish and wildlife parking area. Keiser only has two houses on it and it’s very beautiful and wild. Very nice consistent orange peel ice which was mostly 2 1/2 inches today and should be over three by tomorrow, there is a thin area of black ice where there is a stream flow on the end for this from the parking area. Also, the shorelines are weak in many spots.
Molly’s pond in Cabot (byrt2)had great orange, peel ice quality. Molly’s pond does not have any apparent public access that I know of, we happen to see the farmer who owned the land when we were looking for a place to park and asked if we could park by the side of the road and walk down to the pond, he was fine with it. This was a really lovely Skate as the sun was setting in the moon was rising.
Coles pond in Walden Vermont was the second largest pond that we skated. Look for my previous post where ellen replied with the parking area location. Coles had the worst ice quality of the day, with some blown slush waves, and lots of random frozen slush patterns. however, there were smooth lanes along the shorelines and even some in the middle of the lake. This lake is 99 acres with camps towards the front and beautiful wild Cedar Swamp with lots of little side passages to explore and a few islands. Some of the best scenery of the day, even if the ice was not as good. Not some thing I would drive a long way for but if you’re up here anyways, why not? Coles also had the thickest ice measuring close to 4 inches or more.
Flagg Pond in Wheelock Vermont. Flagg was the largest pond we skated, with generally good ice, although it was bumpy, or than some of the other places that I have mentioned, but the kind of bumpy that you don’t mind skating over. They were also some nice little swampy areas to explore and lots of smooth areas of ice as well, this is another beautiful pond lined with Cedars and marsh and no houses or development. Easy access from the side of flagg Pond Road. The ice on flagg was pretty thick for the most part being around 3 inches almost everywhere besides being a little thinner near some Beaver activity.
There are probably some more places out there, but this was a pretty full day, with lots of miles iand beautiful things seen. It is pretty safe to assume that the ice will grow at least a half an inch from these thicknesses I reported today.
Happy skating!one day only…… Evan
Ps. Temps are going to be warming rapidly with a strong South wind tomorrow afternoon so I would recommend getting out early if you intend to skate multiple ponds . It is quite possible that it will be too warm to skate this ice by afternoon.
Evan Perkins
Nov 25, 2023, 8:56:49 PM11/25/23
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Evan Perkins
Nov 25, 2023, 8:57:54 PM11/25/23
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Evan Perkins
Nov 25, 2023, 9:00:10 PM11/25/23
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Evan Perkins
Nov 25, 2023, 9:01:22 PM11/25/23
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Evan Perkins
Nov 25, 2023, 9:02:43 PM11/25/23
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Evan Perkins
Nov 25, 2023, 9:04:26 PM11/25/23
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