Skate The Ice Trail December 4, 2022

I took my chances and headed to The Ice Trail with hopes I could skate.  Officially it is still closed but I received insider information last evening that skaters were engraving their etchings on it.  When I arrived at the parking location close to The Ice Trail, I witnessed an exciting vision!  The groomer was flooding the trail! 

I quickly laced up my skates, locked the car, gingerly walked a few seconds across the snow, stepped onto the ice, then began etching my own designs while my heart sang loud and I smiled wide!  The lights were still lite on the trees and the sun was about to peek above the horizon. As I reached the far eastern section, the groomer finished his magic making and drove off to attend to the croci-curl rinks.

Skating The Ice Trail on a Sunday is not my preference but I took a chance this morning.  Maybe because it is posted as being officially closed, others were not as keen as me to show up anyway.  I skated for an hour and a half and shared the trail with one other person for twenty minutes. It was delightful!

 After a couple of kilometres of skating, the lights went out and now the sun shone bright!

At one point when I stopped to admire the view, 

the bright shadow from my skate blade caught my eye.  

This is early season for The Ice Trail and the conditions will improve as each session of flooding occurs.  There were three short sections where it was necessary to power through plus a few spots where watching your blade placement was important.  I left feeling fulfilled and excited for etching lots more designs on The Ice Trail!