Wild Ice In Cincinnati Ohio

:date: 2024-01-17 20:28 :tags:

I got a very special present today! The weather gods have been making my rollerskiing a challenge but part of that has been extremely cold temperatures. After four continuous days of well below freezing temperatures, some freezable water has frozen! When my friend Matt and I learned that Mirror Lake in Eden Park had frozen sufficiently to skate on, we paid a visit!

Sure enough, it is pretty well covered in strong thick ice. I'd say 4"/10cm. There was a scary area over an access hatch in the floor that wasn't frozen, but mostly it felt pretty solid.

I am actually extremely nervous about the whole idea of wild ice and lake skating. If we had global cooling then maybe I could trust the locals' intuitions about, say, skiing across the lake at Craftsbury, VT  —  I however declined! The thing is that if you screw it up and fall through the ice, it is very often fatal. What's fantastic about Mirror Lake is that it is only about thigh high at maximum, even lower in the winter. I used to sail my model yacht here and I actually know it pretty well. To be able to zoom around the surface of it was quite magnificent.

Here is a link to the video I took. It is an HD video and worth watching on a big screen.

I took the video right when we got started so I would make sure I got some footage, but I see now that I was skating very nervously. My GPS reported that I skated 23 kilometers on that lake and by the end of it I had found a good safe route and could get into a more relaxed stride.

My friend Matt is one of the smoothest skaters you'll ever see  —  an absolute champion at enjoying ice skating. You can see it for yourself in the video.

It was really a magical opportunity and we both were delighted we were able to take advantage of it.

I just noticed that the Cincinnati Enquirer had me on their main page today! And here too.