Although it was not planned, yesterday I skied around Sable Lake's perimeter. The ice is still quite thick. I started by skiing down Lowder Road to the boat ramp. I skied down the boat ramp to the ice on the lake's surface so I could take a picture of the sand dunes. It was sunny and around 40 degrees and gorgeous out. Then I decided to see how safe the ice was and headed to the south. I didn't hear any cracks or see any evidence of breakage, so I just kept going, staying fairly close to shore. The next thing I knew I was at the south end. Sable Lake is 2.2 miles long and .7 miles wide. At its deepest, it is 85 feet -- which I wanted to stay away from, hence hugging the shore. Under the ice there are a lot of game fish including lake trout, rainbow, splake, smelt, yellow perch, small mouth bass, rock bass, and northern pike. The most amazing thing about the ski was how fast it was. I didn't time how long it took to ski to the south end, but it only took 28 minutes to ski back from the south end to the swimming beach. That is faster than a canoe! Here is a map of my route (in red):
As you can see, the boat ramp road still has plenty of snow. It also made for a good ski.
The shot of the sand dunes I took from the boat ramp...
Along the west side of the lake, this grand daddy white birch was hanging over the ice.
South of the boat ramp a ways is what we locals call Towes Creek. The national park's map calls it Tower Creek.
There were a few cracks in the ice that I could see, but I did not hear a single cracking sound as I skied around the lake.
The view of the dunes from near the south end, using the telephoto lens on my camera.
The south end of the lake...
The hardest part of the ski was the road back to the visitor's center. I was barely able to ski along the side of the road.
I have been wanted to take a picture of the school's new sign, installed last fall -- for those of you who have not yet seen it.
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