Earlier today, I made a last-minute decision to join a group that had planned a skate at the re-frozen leads off of the causeway.
We got a slightly later start (10:30) in cold temperatures (~15f) and walked across crusty snow to the re-frozen lead off of Colchester point. The ice initially seemed fairly quiet, but 5 minutes into the skate we watched a pressure crack form right in front of us, which was fairly exciting!
From there we skated north past Sunset Island to Stave Island and were treated to some beautiful clear ice that allowed us to see the rocks of Stave Island shoal only a few feet below the ice. There was a small amount of open water near that point, but otherwise it was decent grey and black ice.
From Stave island our group split up, we returned the way we had come, and encountered a fair bit of activity on the ice. The March sun really woke up the ice, and lots of wet cracks and pressure ridges appeared as we returned.
Today's skate had a very different feel than even a few weeks ago; I think it is fair to say that we're in spring skating territory: grey resurfaced ice and lots of activity!