Updates: New Ices

I added an excursion to Schofield Pond to my day. I’ve been intrigued by it for years, and thought it would be fun to try to skate it. I couldn’t find any kind of trail, so I wound up bushwhacking from campsite 15.

I’m told I erred in referring to the area near Lake Ninevah, in my last report, as “central Vermont”. My deepest apologies to all of you who live in the one true Central Vermont; I won’t make that mistake again!

I skated Lake Ninevah yesterday, in Mount Holly, Vermont, just north of Ludlow. We don’t get a lot of reporting on central Vermont ice, so I wanted to be sure people knew about this one.

Ticklenaked Pond, just off the interstate in Ryegate, was in gorgeous shape today. 4”+ of solid ice, a mixture of snow ice and black ice and combinations of the two, strong and smooth as can be. Everywhere I checked, other than the extreme edges of the pond, was thick and stable. The surrounding moat was minimal, maybe 2 feet of thin ice, easily bridged. Symes Pond, also in Ryegate but farther off the main roads, was also very nice. Not as perfectly smooth as Ticklenaked, and not as consistent, but still great.

Ice I’ve added recently (bringing the atlas to a total of 30 entries). In the gazetteer, ice that requires hiking in is now indicated with the trailhead icon. It’s now easier to tell where to click to get directions from ice atlas entries. Each location that has pop-up links to mapping apps is now indicated by a little DIRECTIONS button. There’s now a button on every map that will reset your view of the map to its original state. If you’re viewing the overview map, then you’ll go back to the overview of Vermont and New Hampshire; if you’re viewing an individual entry’s map, you’ll go back to the starting view of that entry. I’ve also made a number of behind-the-scenes changes that should improve the site and map’s performance.

All the ponds seem to be coming in (for those who aren’t traveling to Maine for early season big ice), all with similar conditions.

The 2023 ice season is off to a good start. I’ve been out twice so far, thanks to Evan Perkins’s timely reporting of ice conditions to the Vermont and New Hampshire email lists. First a wonderful midday skate on the black and gray ice of Beaver Pond, second a morning skate on the lightly textured slush ice of Keiser Pond. I’ve also been adding ice entries to the atlas.