I used to start hoping for snow as soon as the weather turned cool. Now each year I hope for a few weeks of cold weather before any snow falls. Why? For ice skating! Not the go-around-in-circles kind of ice skating. No, I’m talking about cruising for miles at a time on nordic blades.
Today, Tim and I explored the Duck Flats area at the head of Knik Arm. I’d heard that the skating there last year was phenomenal. Since it hasn’t been very cold this fall, we were concerned that we might be a little too early. But since nordic skating has such a short window of time, we decided to give it a go anyway.
The ice was not good. To get to Duck Flats you have to skate down Rabbit Slough for a few miles. On the slough, there were multiple layers of ice. The base layer was thick, but the top layer was not. Most of the time the top layer held our weight, despite lots of creaking. But occasionally we’d break through and have a split second to wonder if it was going to be wet or dry underneath. Luckily, our feet only got wet a few times. The ice was also gritty from lots of wind, which made it very slow in many spots.
Out on the Duck Flats, the ice was solid as long as we avoided vegetation, but it had been windy when the ice froze out there, so it was bumpy and dirty. A few smooth spot were found, but as Tim said, we should have brought our full-suspension skates!
But in spite of the conditions, we still managed to skate for about 20 miles and explore a really cool area, so the day was a success. When the ice is smooth and hard, this area would be amazing.
Of course, Tim’s the star of my pictures. If you want to see pictures of me, go to Tim’s 2010 Skiing (and skating!) page.
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