Originally Posted by
tat
I don't know what made me think I could skate. I did try to skate once. When I was 10 or 12 Dad took us to the Mr. Benson's pond in Maryland. It was one of those rare winters when it froze enough to skate. I had my older brother's old skates. They were about two sizes too big and simply rolled over as soon as I stood up.
Two years ago, I was paddling on small lake in southern Maine and stopped to check out an island. It looked like a nice possible cache spot. Even though it was late summer, there were a pair of ice skates on the ground. They would probably just sit there and rot. So, I tried them on and they fit!!
Fast forward to last week. I wanted to go kayak camping. The weather was supposed to be clear and beautiful. Good thing we didn't go because the wind was 45 mph and gusting!! Karen had the idea of skating to get caches. I had to admit, that did sound better than high winds and high seas. And, how hard could it be to learn to skate?
We took off at nicely protected Lovejoy Pond. I used my ski poles to help stay up. We found the cache and made it back. Not bad, a little less than a mile of skating and no injuries!
So we took off for Three Mile Pond. Like Karen said, the beginning was a bit rough, but soon the ice was perfect. Karen had a great time skating down wind. I couldn't believe I was skating about 8 mph, and wondered what I'd do if there was open water and just how does one stop! We made it 1.6 miles to the cache and I got to take off the skates, which felt good. The cache was a bit hard to find, but not too bad, especially without those skates! I think going back against the wind must be an advanced lesson. I decided to change into boots and stabilizers for the last mile back.
That's when I noticed FrankenGPS was no longer in my pocket. Fortunately, Karen was very willing to go back and look for it. She had to skate an extra mile, but at least she seemed to enjoy it. I had left the gps at the cache!!
I was more than happy to use hike into Branch Pond!
Thanks to Karen, I now know yet another great Maine winter activity. I can't wait to get back out again.