Last week’s heat wave took out most of the small lakes on Mt. Desert Island. They thought they were done for the year, but recent cold nights built fresh ice. This morning Eagle Lake had three inches of perfect ice. The kind of ice you hope for in December and then slowly forget about as the season moves into snow ice and frozen slush, drain holes and pressure ridges.

In true form, a dusting of snow was dumped upon the plate last night, but the wind mostly cleared it. Today as a few skaters and one skim batter were doing their laps, there were still streamers floating off to leeward. It’s not a big plate; enough for a DN short track course, and there were areas of open water, but to be on the real thing, feel the silent glide, was priceless.

The moral of the story, as always, is to watch the weather and stay in touch.

Thanks to Bob Lombardo and Jeff Rosenberry for scouting this.