Boulder Junction Town Park Board member Steve Weber called the response to the first year of The Glide “overwhelming.”
“We were told by the Canadians, ‘If you build it, they will come,’” said Weber. “We were all a bit skeptical. Shortly after we had our opening, we got bombarded.”
The Glide was created last winter based on the ice skating trail through the woods at Arrowhead Provincial Park in Ontario.
After the abysmal winter two years ago, Weber and others on the town park board realized while there wasn’t enough snow for the classic winter activities like snowmobiling and cross-country skiing, that winter had been cold enough for ice.
The park board along with more than a dozen volunteers created The Glide. It’s an .8 mile long trail through a portion of the Northern Highland American Legion State Forest that the town uses as its Winter Park.
It is the first of its kind in Wisconsin. The Glide earned a First Ascent Award for Innovation in the 2025 Governor’s Outdoor Industry Awards.
“Boulder junction has always been a town of first,” said Weber.
Weber thinks part of that innovation comes from the town’s location. It doesn’t directly sit on a lake like many neighboring communities, and you have to go a bit off the highway to get there.
“I call it the big right turn. How do you get people to make that right turn on the Highway M to come to Boulder Junction?” said Weber.
The Glide certainly got people to make that turn last winter.
Thousands of people came to Boulder Junction because of the ice-skating ribbon.
People were coming from Chicago, Minneapolis, the Dakotas, California, and even a woman from Spain.
“We got a chance to meet people from all over,” said Haley Hiller, owner of the Boulder Junction Coffee Company.
The Glide brought the coffee shop a lot of extra business Hiller doesn’t normally have during the winter months, as they don’t typically see a lot of business from snowmobilers.
“I can't even tell you how many people would come in and let us know that they were in town for The Glide. It's been super awesome for us,” said Hiller.
The Boulder Junction Coffee Company wasn’t the only local business to benefit.
Lakewood Market and restaurants like Aqualand Ale House saw a sharp increase in visitors.
Market owner Kevin Mantz said people were stopping in for hot food, snacks, and fuel.
“The impact in the non-snowmobiling season is absolutely dramatic. I mean, it's almost to the level, at least for us, of snowmobile traffic,” said Mantz. “That's how many people are traveling here from near and far to visit The Glide.”
Aqualand Ale House had special offers for people that visited The Glide.
“Boulder Junction is known for the outdoor recreation, but The Glide just takes it to a whole other level,” said Manager Breanna Miner. “It's very cool seeing all the families come in and telling their stories about The Glide with their kids. It's truly a wonderful addition to Boulder junction, so we're very happy to be a part of it.”
Coontail, an outdoor retailer with a Boulder Junction location, said without snow, sales of snowshoes and winter gear were down the last two winters.
With creation of The Glide, Operations Manager Bridget Milne said they started selling and renting out skates for the first time.
“It was just an absolute whirlwind. I mean, it was hectic. It was crazy. Skates couldn't be coming back fast enough for someone else to be jumping on them immediately,” said Milne. “Even with the smaller items. People would be coming into town, they've forgotten mittens, hats, all that little stuff. It was great. It breathed a new excitement back into the town.”
That excitement is still palpable as Boulder Junction gets ready for its second season of The Glide, set to open this Saturday.
Volunteers have been working to get Winter Park ready. They’ve been making rounds with trucks pulling the dripping water tank to build the ice and smoothing ice trail and skating rink with the Zamboni hooked up to the town’s tractor.
There are also some park improvements based on lessons learned from the first season, including more parking, improved signage, a new shed for the firewood, and a lot more porty potties.
“It's going to be a challenge because there's other things that we'll find out, but the park board and all the volunteers and cooperation with the state of Wisconsin helping us, all that helps put this all together, and our town crew coming in here, knowing what they had to do,” said Boulder Junction Town Chairman Dennis Reuss. “It's a community effort, and it makes it beneficial for everybody.”
Weber says that since the success of the first season, other communities have been reaching out to learn how they can create their own ice-skating ribbon.
When responding to them, it’s not the trail or equipment needs Weber starts with.
“We start out by saying, ‘We hope you have a large volunteer base.’ It's 15 full time volunteers out here for three weeks to get this ice built,” said Weber.
And that’s just the start, volunteers help clear the snow off the ice, run the Zamboni at least once a day, and even off the ice, help keep things like the warming hut clean and organized.
Cathy Royer helped start the Friends of Boulder Junction Parks because of those volunteer needs during the winter and beyond. For Royer, getting involved was about seeing just how much the town needed something like The Glide.
“The year before it, you'd come into town, and it was dead. We didn't have snow, we didn't have people. It was the first time I really appreciated that, boy, we really need this. We need the snow. We need snowmobilers,” said Royer. “But it was so much fun to come to town busy. There are people here and people are just happy. They're having a good time. That really made us feel good.”
With a good snow base on the ground and three inches of ice on The Glide, the town and all the volunteers are looking forward to an even busier winter.
The Glide and Winter Park are set to open this Saturday, December 20th at 10:00 a.m.
Winter Park is located less than a mile east of downtown Boulder Junction off Old K.
In addition to The Glide, there is an ice skating rink, sledding hill, shelter, and warming hut.
