Northeast kingdom VT ice report/weekend ice forecast 11/21

Evan Perkins

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Nov 21, 2023, 1:18:09 PM11/21/23

to NHNordicSkating, VTNordicskating, Evan Perkins

I had time to do a little scouting on my way back from deliveries today. I found kettle and I pond in Groton state forest to be a strong inch and a quarter of new black ice where I could test it. It appears that the whole lake is frozen over although it is possible there are areas in the middle that are thinner than that. Having caught last night and not the night before.

Keyser pond in Peacham was in similar condition, completely frozen over with 1 1/4 inch of fresh black ice.

I was able to skate a small pond that is the headwaters of Marshfield Brook located about a quarter mile north of cattle pond along 232 . This had older textured, black ice that was 2+ inches thick, although it was only one and three-quarter towards the edges where I got on because there was a slight snow cover on the edge. It’s a very small pond probably not worth traveling for but if you’re close and don’t mind skating on thin ice, it’s a pretty good venue for it as it is very shallow.

There is a good possibility that these ponds that I mentioned above could be good Skating by Sunday morning, possibly Saturday although I suspect they would still be thin because they are expected to receive 4+ inches of snow tonight which will depress the ice and we will need to wait for that to fully freeze through to the original black ice before we’re able to skate it. No guarantees that the surface condition will be good but there is at least some likelihood of some decent Skating by Sunday morning.

It would be great to hear reports of any other bodies of water that people have seen skim over as this will let people who are interested in scouting know where to look on the weekend. Any bodies of water that are less then an inch thick of ice as of today are unlikely to survive the warm and windy weather were expected to have over the next couple days, but anything over an inch has a good chance of surviving.

Other bodies of water that I looked at were Molly‘s Falls reservoir, which had some partial skim, Joes pond, which was the same. And Martin’s pond in Peacham, which appeared to be mostly skimmed over, but there are still a few open spots. There’s a good chance any bodies of water that have any open spots will completely or partially re-open due to wind.

I also heard a report that long pond in Benton, New Hampshire was skimmed over, although there’s a chance that it’s thin enough it may not hold. This is a secondhand report, so no guarantees. The reporter said that there was some one and a half inch thick, snow ice near the shore, but new large crystal ice out in the middle, most likely from last night so I am guessing 3/4 of an inch.

It would be great to hear some reports from the Hardwick, Vermont and Woodbury Vermont areas, lots of little ponds up there. Also, green river reservoir If anybody is close to that, it’s very unlikely that something of that size skimmed over, but it could be a holiday miracle!

Here’s to some good holiday weekend Skating! Evan