It’s been a hard winter in the north. Lots of ice, friends falling on the refreeze, broken legs, concussions and rehab. A winter Easter that looks like a spring Christmas. But, we had our ice beach day last month. You really couldn’t explain it to someone who doesn’t live here. The ingredients; frozen water, sun, no wind, blue sky, the smell of ice and snow slightly melting, proper gear, hiking poles, cleats, joyous dog, no crowds, white against blue against brown.
We walked it, kick sledded it, and some fish it. Other years it’s happened weekend after weekend, but this hard year really only once. Other weekends were windy, or below zero, or grey or spitting wet snow from the skies. The recipe is precise and when it is composed correctly is as good as any beach.
Some of the components are hard to pin down … the fact that most days here aren’t like that? The idea that most Americans don’t know about it? It is so counter the narrative of what people want…palms, water, sand, garish tropical colors. Here the color is stark or subtle … a bit of green moss on a southern exposure, the flash of bird color, the after glow at sunset.
But an ice beach day can’t be beat. We treated it like our summer dock, dragged out the deck chairs, iced our beverages in the snow, snacks out of the reach of dog teeth.
Chatted as if it were a summer eve evening without mosquitoes. Blood running high to keep us warm, gear just right we could have sat there all night. Ice changing color like the northern lights as the sun receded on earth’s edge. "Can’t beat it," as we say in Minnesota. Ice is sagging now, riddled with refreezing, unreliable when placed over lake springs or near shallow waters. It will be another year before we have another day that is so invigorating, so unusual to outsiders but a usual treasure of a hard winter.
Kris Potter lives in Minneapolis and on Lake Sylvia. In Minneapolis she works as an Early Childhood Educator. She and her
family have had a cabin on Lake Sylvia for more than 40 years.