Moosehead

[Matt Steinberg]

Hello Everyone,

I am sure that most of you have put away your skates and pulled out your bikes or kayaks and are looking forward to the coming spring. I hold on to winter as long as I can and watching the moats widen and the ice deteriorate on my local lake led me to take desperate actions to keep my season going in the face of this early Spring we have been experiencing. Acting on some intel from the ice boating community, I decided to drive 5 1/2 hours up to Moosehead Lake in northern Maine. For those of you unfamiliar, the mighty Moosehead dwarfs Winnepesuakee and bows only to Champlain in size, measuring a maximum length of 40 miles and width of 10 with many coves and 80+ islands.  

Teaming up with my fellow ice obsessed comrade from Maine, Richard Behr, we decided to set up a point to point from Rockwood near Mount Kineo to Greenville at the extreme south end of the lake. Upon arrival at Rockwood, we were greeted by 14 degrees and 50 mph winds that would pound us all day. The ice was 24 inches thick here. The ice at the launch was the worst we found, deeply degraded, cobblestoned black ice with crystal boundaries eroded up to 1 inch deep. We double polled across this and once out of the bay, we encountered some much smoother (comparatively) ice for a short distance. This didn't last long but a pattern setup that we were able to follow all the way down. All of the shores were pretty much wetted out with a mix of wet and dry shell ice just beyond the moats. About 100 to 200 feet out from shore, there were lanes of resurfaced grey ice that alternated between smooth-ish and bumpy. Outside of this lane was an area of degrading but visually stunning large grain black ice that had exquisitely etched boundaries. The boundaries were not depressed but were actively degrading, shattering like small shards of glass as you skated over them. Embedded in this were areas of small grain black ice that was at the very initial stages of what will eventually become candled ice. At this point, it provided the smoothest ice on the lake. Beyond this area towards the middle of the lake was cobblestoned black ice of varying levels of roughness. This kept us generally out of the middle and instead tracing the many coves and bays of the shoreline all the way to Greenville. 

This was in essence a downwinder but the wind was so fierce that it was actually more of a hindrance in the rough ice as it was borderline dangerous if you were unable to control your speed. We became very good at actually mimicking the act of slalom skiing by edging our skates and making parallel GS style turns in order to control or speed. It was like taking a fast downhill mogul run with wind taking the place of gravity. Quite exhilarating.  There were several large, long, and dramatically rafted pressure ridges that had wide moats with dubiously fused polygons and debris which caused us to use some innovative methods to cross a few of them, not wanting to follow them for several miles to find a suitable place which may not have existed. In addition, a few areas of open water necessitated portages.

I love this stuff. At this point in the season, I no longer really consider this ice skating but rather using ice as a medium of travel. The intricate route finding, the many skating techniques required, and dealing with harsh weather conditions and big lake dynamics is extremely rewarding. There are also lots of opportunities to study the degradation of ice. This is not for everyone. Of the somewhere between 35 and 40 miles of skating (my GPS stopped working for a bit) probably 10 of those miles were decent ice conditions. The rest were passable but very challenging. However, achieving the goal of getting from one place to another on such a vast, wild, and  somewhat remote lake is such a thrill. 

There is still a lot of ice out there, most of it quite bumpy but hopefully some venues will allow us the opportunity to skate well into April. I have heard that the Rangeley lakes are in similar condition. If you choose to skate, be careful out there. The ice is changing rapidly so do not venture out if you are at all unsure of your Spring ice reading skills or gear and have a partner.  For those of you who are done for the year, have a great summer and we will hopefully meet again on the black ice in November.q