McDaniel's Marsh Enfield, NH

[Matt Steinberg]

Hello Everyone,

Based on yesterday's satellite image and some road scouting, I ventured over to McDaniel's Marsh this morning in hopes of finding some skateable ice. The temp got down to the mid 20s last evening and then had warmed to around freezing this morning. Getting on the ice was a challenge. It required a bushwack portage dragging an 8 foot board that I had crammed in a Honda Civic and then 2 subsequent board placements to span the moats. An ornery local came down to yell at me thinking I was cutting down a Christmas tree and then harassed me some more when they found out I was skating. Anyway, once on the ice I found at least 4 inches of hard, grey ice that had an utterly flawless surface. It was just soft enough to hold your edge, hero ice, and I was able to do a 1.7 mile loop on the lower main body of the lake. The narrows were impassable but barely. I thought about dragging the board out there because this would have opened up another 1.5 mile loop but alas I just made loops and crossings on the main body for about 3 hours. Unfortunately I did not have internet out there so I could not report earlier. When I left the temp was up to 37 and just starting to soften. My main reason for writing this is to keep this one on the watch list for the refreeze later this week. Access could be difficult or impossible after the rain but I will probably check it again Wednesday and see how it fared.