Sitting on the west side of downtown Boulder Junction, Aqualand Ale House doesn’t see a lot of snowmobilers in the winter.
“A lot of the bar restaurants that serve hard liquor get a lot of the snowmobile traffic, and we get about 10%,” said Aqualand Ale House owner Joel Miner. “The big snow seasons impact us a little bit, and we're gaining ground on that. We're off the trail a little bit.”
Miner says despite not getting a ton of snowmobilers, when there’s snow on the ground, people visit.
Which also means last year, when there was next to no snow, there wasn’t a lot of business.
“We really, really suffered. I mean, we took a big loss in revenue over the whole year. I mean, dramatic. People just weren't coming up because there wasn’t snow,” said Miner.
That loss of business and the negative impact last winter had on the local economy prompted the Town of Boulder Junction to try something new.
As WXPR reported in December, Henry Royer brought the idea of The Glide to the town after seeing a video of ice skating trails at parks in Canada.
“I looked at it, and I immediately said, ‘Boulder Junction has to have this.’ That was the start of it,” said Royer in a previous interview with WXPR.
It took dozens of hours of work by roughly 20 volunteers to build and maintain the ice skating trail, or ribbon as they’re often called, at Boulder Junction’s Winter Park, which already had an ice rink and a sledding hill.
“It was a wild ride. I guess you could say we anticipated it being fun and a lot, but it was so overwhelming how many people accepted it and came to the Winter Park to experience The Glide. It was incredible,” said Laura Bertch, town supervisor and chairperson for the Boulder Junction Park Board.
The town supported The Glide by working with the DNR to get approval and paying the majority cost for equipment like the Zamboni.
According to Bertch, supporting The Glide was an economical decision by the town board.
“That was our reasoning behind doing this was to improve the economy, if possible, and give our visitors an option when they come north. Snowmobiling was slow to start this winter. It didn't start at all last winter, and it hurt the businesses in town,” said Bertch.
According to businesses WXPR talked with, it worked.
The town put a meter on the ice skating trail to see how many time people lapped The Glide. Bertch says it ended the season counting more than 17,000 revolutions.
Miner started bringing donuts made at the bakery Aqualand opened last June to Winter Park to give out to visitors.
He said that got people visiting to see the bakery. Then he noticed his lunch crowd started increasing.
“The more we talked and asked people what they were doing, it was they were at The Glide,” said Miner. “We were finding that either through the name recognition, of having donuts over there or just them knowing Aqualand, we got a lot more lunchtime business, which was really, really fantastic. Helped our business a lot.”
Later on in the season, there was a stand put out for businesses like Aqualand and others to put out complimentary drinks and treats instead of putting them in the warming hut.
Miner hopes that comes back again next year.
It was a similar experience for the Boulder Junction Coffee Company.
Owner Haley Hiller says they often attract silent sport enthusiasts, so The Glide was fantastic for both the community and her business.
“Once The Glide opened, we saw a large uptick in our business and heard tons of great things. We had several groups of customers that came to Boulder Junction from other states, specifically to skate The Glide,” said Hiller. “We also saw a big jump in visitors from surrounding local communities, who haven’t been to Boulder in quite some time.”
Hiller called The Glide “a major hit” for both community members and visitors.
The Glide welcomed skaters for more than two months before last week’s warm up was too much to overcome.
“They did not want to stop, but the weather is stopping us,” said Bertch.
The first year, while successful, wasn’t without its growing pains.
There was an issue with the free skates disappearing in the beginning of the season, though Bertch said they actually ended the season with more pairs than they started with.
One challenge they’ll be working on in the off season is parking.
“We would have 50 cars there in a lot created for maybe 20,” said Bertch.
Bertch said they had around 18 to 20 volunteers building and maintaining The Glide throughout the winter which made it all possible.
There’s already talks about how they can expand it and make a cut through for younger kids that struggled with the full loop.
“We appreciate the support the community gave us, and we appreciate the visitors that came and the residents that came to use The Glide,” said Bertch. “It encourages us to continue to improve on The Glide and expand.”
Barring unforeseen circumstances, Boulder Junction anticipates reopening Winter Park, with The Glide, in December 2025.
This story is part of WXPR’s focus on solutions in the Northwoods. You can learn more about our Solutions Journalism effort and share here.
