Skate-adventuring on Lake Mempramagog

[Matt Steinberg]

Hi Everyone,

I had been eyeing a down winder from Magog, Quebec to Newport, VT all week but abandoned that plan for good reasons and decided instead to get up at 430 and drive 2 hours up to Whipple Landing just west of Newport and put in for an out and back as far as I could go. Access was pretty simple with no moat. I headed due north and the calm wind quickly strengthened into a formidable head wind. The ice was pretty terrible for the first 2.5 miles with many frozen animal and snowshoe tracks to cross as well as several snowmobile superhighways. The ice was thick but was supportable one poke sandwich near shore and more solid toward the middle. Once I got into Canada the ice improved significantly with smooth areas interspersed with frozen snowmobile highway crossings. Near shore there were lots of tracks in front of the widely spaced and well hidden McMansions. I continued past Owls Head ski area up to Molson Island. This was about 12.5 linear miles due north. My goal was Georgeville, probably another 4 miles up, but I reached a point where a very defined color change in the ice marked a boundary where the ice became hollow sounding, started cracking, and just "had that look." It survived 4 pokes initially but seemed to get thinner. Even though I had a drysuit and flotation I was a long way out in a remote area so I turned around and headed back down to explore the east shore and headed over to Fitch Bay which was blocked by open water. I then headed south about 4 or 5 miles and ran into Jamie and Erzo at the US border and we all skated home. The thin ice I found correspondrd exactly with the satellite images. Amazing. I also ran into a pack of coyotes in the middle of the lake, no carcass around so I am not sure why they were more than a mile from the nearest shore. Very cool!! Other than an Eagle, the only living things I saw until Jamie and Erzo. Quite an adventure. By the end, the sandwich ice was becoming unskateable and a trip hazard. Turned my GPS off for a bit,  it recorded 27 but I estimate around 30 miles. A great (possible) end of the season adventure 

Matt