Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Skating through the Forest

Yes you read that right.   I'm going back to some of my favourite winter memories here, and this is one of the best.  Ten years ago I joined a Bruce Trail group that headed north to the Huntsville area for a winter weekend.  It was great fun, and a group of friends I still see regularly.

There was snowshoeing right at the lodge we stayed in, but most days we headed over the Arrowhead Provincial Park for cross-country skiing.  With its varied levels of groomed trails, it's a mecca for cross-country in the area and it was only 20 minutes away.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

It was there I discovered they also had a well maintained skate trail.  So the next year I took my skates and insisted to my companions that I wanted time to skate this trail.  They all sat in the warm car while I went for my skate - it was bitterly cold.

They created the trail by laying down ice on one of the winding campground roads, and they actually had a zamboni to maintain the ice.  It was amazing skating, and one of the first such trails in Ontario.

I often went skating in the big arena at the university when I worked there, and even took lessons when I was 40 or older, so I could at least stand up on my skates, and I really enjoyed this winter adventure.







13 comments:

  1. That would be so cool. There’s a skating trail near us. I am trying to persuade jj to go since he no longer plays hockey. The Rideau skate way is also open for now.

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  2. Oh I'd love to do that. I've never seen anything like that here.
    Pictures are beautiful.

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  3. Great memory! Skating is a great way to enjoy nature if one is lucky enough to have a safe place to skate.

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  4. We have a skate and snowshoe trail at our township rec center. It is very popular. They do a Halloween walk then get things going for a Christmas trail. It's well lit and groomed with a zamboni

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  5. That would have been so much fun! I used to skate a lot, but the ol' knees have put the ki-bosh on that!

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  6. Looking at those iced paths makes we want to skate them. Only if I could and knew how to :-(

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  7. The skating paths were certainly well maintained. We have something similar in a small community outside Regina, though I've never been. I can't remember the last time I was on skates but it has been years.

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  8. Wow they used a Zamboni and everything!

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    1. That is a new one for me seeing an ice ring\k road.

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  9. And here at first I thought you were talking about skating with cross-country skis -- fooled me. That surely must have been great fun.

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  10. Never learned how to skate. The Canal is open for it here.

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