Chickawaukie Ice Boat Club

Boats are on the ice, great wind forecast for tomorrow.

Belgrade Lakes is just far enough from the coast to keep their ice, yet close enough to wet out nicely. Chickawaukee is all open, Damariscotta is right behind. Jory and I skate sailed from the public boat launch on Great Pond out to the bottom of Hoyt Island. The straight there, which leads to the larger east side of the lake, is open. Looking east we could see nothing out of order. The west side north from the launch looks fine, except for this ridge. We chopped down 8″ finding no water; local reports are telling us 11″.

This pressure ridge is about a half mile north of the launch and is easily crossed. There is an open lead visible at the point in mid-frame. The straight in the background is open.
The surface is an easy #8+. Skating was smooth and effortless, the skate sailing like flight.
The launch area is excellent and will probably hold trailers but not cars. The ice is thick but not super strong. We plan to be there around 9:00.

Looking north from the pressure ridge.

10 am saturday morning….coming out of Yoga class……ready to “leap tall buildings in a single bound”…. but…. there was that vague itchy-twichy feeling:

                 I must go down to the ice again

                 to the sun and the blue, blue sky

                 where a runner, a skate, or a cleated boot

                 is the key to a door flung wide

So i chased down the skating gear and headed for the launch at Bog Bridge.  Within minutes…..without the slightest networking…three other risk-tolerant skaters arrived…..paul, geoff, and anita….i just adore it when life sends you serendipity like this….before us lay a beautiful plate of ice, punctuated by nasty darker enlarged drain holes, widened open fractures, and a large lead from the inlet of a nearby creek…

we donned skates….paul even had a lifejacket…and we headed out on the glide-y smooth mixed surface….outside the bay, the surface was even better, the drain holes fewer and we headed north in the bright, almost-spring sun and barely perceptible west wind….. we end-ran the first pressure ridge which had solid ice at its west end….gradually our skating strokes lengthened, leaning into the turns, as we scolloped into the extra-smooth bays on the west shore….it was such a treat to watch Geoff, a consummate athlete, hands gripping his ice-chisel behind his back, do that graceful dance  of long-distance nordic skating.

we were soon blocked by a wide pressure ridge at Wooster Narrows, which would have required skate removal and a detour ashore…..besides, how much ice did we really need?….so we headed south around Fernald’s Neck…..and began skating east across the broads….the wind was slightly strengthening….and we began that especial bliss of skating downwind, whooping it up as the ecstasy of the ice, sun, and ease took hold.  Van Morrison’s song…do you remember it?….sprung to mind:

we were born…..before the wind

also younger…..than the sun

ere the bonny boat was won

as we sailed…..into the mystic

that raspy voice:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEvsDuJYEnI

yet as we skated, i noticed cracks were propagating ahead of us….unlike early-ice fractures which flash out in straight lines, these followed artistic zig-zaggy patterns….i ruminated, in half-esctasy:  ….this must mean that the ice structure is changing….this must mean this ice is beginning to “pencil”, changing to vertical grain….this must mean….what the heck are we doing here????….but….

but…for now we were safe, and we skated to the “stairs to flagpole” pressure ridge we knew from the week before….the others, time-constrained, turned back….I stepped across the open crack ….and for a brief 10 minute…i braved skating alone…until a sensible fear gripped me and, turning west,  I followed our scratches back to the launch….

In the mid-afternoon i returned and rigged the skate sail….but within minutes, distracted by maneuvering the bulky sail, one skate slipped into a drain hole and down i went…a half hour of careful sailing later, i happily de-rigged, and counted my blessings…how sad, sad, these next months!   …yet….. what a swan-song!

A guy will run around chasing all kinds of ice that looks good on-line, but when it comes right down to it, it’s the old familiar passion that really lights the flame. Sebec was ugly with marginal access. Ditto for Wassookeag and double ditto for Sebasticook. It was sweet Miss Plymouth that hit it.

This ice was on fire today. Perfect wet-out and recovery. Tight access. Plymouth Store for lunch. Brisk NW wind that went down with the sun. For me, I learned what it felt like to chase a Whizz all day, only occasionally able to squeek past.

We thought Sebec would be a nice half-way lake upon which to meet Denis from Quebec. Each lake we tried was just “15 minutes down the road”: in the wrong direction for him. But finding the prize after hunting all morning will fuel him for the long drive home. And what’s iceboating all about if not driving. It took Jory and I four hours to get to Plymouth!

Big wet mess still forecast for the next two days. If our luck holds some good ice will pop out the other side. We’re over due for a long tour of South Twin. Rick says the entire lake system is good. This includes the fabled Boom House.

Sebec Lake is looking pretty good right now. It’s north of Pushaw, and between Moosehead and South Twin, both of which display no springtime symptoms. Denis Guertin and myself will give it a shot tomorrow. Nasty weather coming Wednesday and Thursday with a potential recovery for the weekend. Just like last week.

No one has checked this ice; this is totally based on web cam images and intuition. The CIBC has sailed this lake in the past but has fallen off the radar in recent years. Wind will be fresh and out of the west, right down the lake. It’s just up the road from Dover-Foxcroft. Launch at Greely’s Landing about 9:30.