Fitz slowly drives his pickup truck down a path in the woods just wide enough for his truck.
“I gotta go three miles an hour. It's my goal,” he said.
The truck is pulling a trailer with a large water tank.
About a dozen steady streams of water, spaced six inches apart on a bar behind the trailer, pour down the trail in streaks as Fitz drives over it.
The work, which will be repeated dozens of times over the next two weeks, is the beginning of an ice skating trail at Boulder Junction’s Winter Park.
Plans for the ice skating trail began back in February. Henry Royer’s wife was sent a video of a skating trail at Arrowhead Provincial Park in Ontario.
“I looked at it, and I immediately said, ‘Boulder Junction has to have this.’ That was the start of it,” said Royer.
An ice-skating trail, or ribbon as they’re sometimes called, is pretty much what it sounds like, a fairly level trail that’s coated in thick ice for people to skate on.
Royer says there’s a few in Canada that have been built in the last several years. They’ve slowly been making their way to the U.S., but mostly in urban areas like the ice skating ribbon in Chicago.
To their knowledge, this will be the first one in northern Wisconsin.
“I think we're pioneering some pretty virgin ground here, and we've done a lot of research,” said Steve Weber.
Weber and Royer are both Boulder Junction Park Board Members that have been working together since February to make the idea a reality.
Creating an ice skating ribbon
Finding the location was pretty straight forward.
The town already has a collaboration with the Wisconsin DNR for their Winter Park.
The land is part of the Northern Highland American Legion State Forest.
There’s a pavilion and warming hut there. In the winter, the town creates an ice skating rink and there’s a small sledding hill.
There’s also a loop trail, about .8 miles long, through the woods.
“This was a very, what I call, low-grade cross-country ski and snowshoeing trail that was very underutilized. When Henry had this brain child, it seemed just natural that, oh, we already have a graded area,” said Weber.
The DNR was on board with the plan, so this summer town crews got to work to level out some areas and smooth out ruts.
Folks at Arrowhead Provincial Park have been helping the town organize things and walk them through what it takes.
Getting volunteers to help build and maintain the ice has also come together.
Fitz, the man driving the truck with the water tank on Tuesday, started the Wild Ice Skating Explorers group in the Northwoods. It’s a group of dedicated ice skaters that try to get out to as many lakes before snow covers the ice.
“We did over 50 lakes last year, 800 miles, and had a lot of fun,” said Fitz.
He’s excited for a more stable way to explore the woods with ice skates.
“The problem with wild ice, it's not always here,” said Fitz. “We love the idea to be able to make a group with more certainty, otherwise we just have a flash event.”
Fitz and other members of the wild ice skating group are volunteering to help build up the ice skating trail.
The last big piece that was missing was the equipment.
The Boulder Junction Community Foundation granted the town $5,000 to purchase a Zamboni that can be pulled behind a tractor.
The town is covering the rest of the cost, about $11,000.
Town Supervisor and Park Board Chairman Laura Bertch said funds are from the town’s room tax account.
Economic boost
“There's a need for this here. Last winter, we had a terrible winter, no snow for three months. Hotels had no visitors, and we felt, the park board felt, that this would be a good opportunity to have visitors come up to visit the skating ribbon,” said Bertch.
There’s already signs the ice skating trail, named The Glide, will be a good boost for tourism to Boulder Junction.
Ever since the community foundation posted to Facebook announcing it was granting money for the Zamboni, the phones have been ringing at the Boulder Junction Chamber of Commerce.
“The reaction was just instantaneous. That next morning, we had people calling, ‘What is this? When will it be open? Where is it?’” said Executive Director Mary Jones.
Like Bertch, Jones is hopeful it will be good for local businesses.
“People can ice skate in so many different places here, on a rink or on a lake, but you don’t get to ice skate through the woods,” she said. “It’s this new, unique way of experiencing the outdoors that’s really going to draw people up here and give people something to do when maybe their traditional winter activities aren’t available to them.”
Solar powered lights were installed along the trail so people will still be able to skate when it gets dark.
There is no fee to use Winter Park, but donations are welcome.
People still have to be patient.
The current cold temps are great for building the ice, but it will still take time. The town is also waiting on the delivery of the Zamboni.
Weather permitting, Weber hopes to have it open on December 20th.
“If it stays like this, we should be in pretty good shape,” said Weber.
With this being the first year, there’s still some unknowns and a bit of experimenting, but Royer and all of them are excited about its future.
“Right now, we're just in the preliminary stage to get this thing to where we have the trail and people can skate. Then we'll see how this all evolves,” said Royer.
Boulder Junction Community Parks and the Chamber of Commerce plan to keep people updated on its opening.
