I think that Nordic skates were created with a place like Nancy Lakes in mind. The Nancy Lakes area is a collection of small lakes and ponds, many of which are connected by short portage trails to create a loop. If you did the loop on regular skates, you’d end up spending most of your time putting your skates on and off between lakes. But with Nordic skates, you can clip in and clip out in a matter of seconds.
Yesterday there was up to an inch of snow on the lakes, and about 4-6 inches in the woods. This wasn’t ideal for skating, but it did open up the possibility of skating the lakes and skiing the woods – all without changing boots!
Tim, Ian and I took advantage of the conditions to do a 26 mile ski & skate loop that hit 22 lakes (both numbers are approximate). Two years ago, Tim and I did the normal Nancy Lakes canoe trail in under two hours. This time we were looking to do a bigger loop. We took ski blades, classic skis, and wore combi or skate boots. We basically encircled the entire Nancy Lakes area, except for Nancy Lake itself. The loop took five hours. The skating was good (even with the snow) and the skiing wasn’t too bad. We skated very quickly across the lakes, but sometimes got bogged down breaking trail on skis. Some parts of the route hadn’t seen any human traffic yet this season.
Its not often that these conditions occur, and we had a great time taking advantage of them. Check out my photos by clicking the photo below. Also check out Tim’s photos and video here.
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