Fun Times on the Ice

Even without much snow, there is still winter fun to be had. I took the girls/dogs to frozen Patterson Lake a couple days ago along with my skate skis. The small amount of snow on the ice surface is sort of chopped up now but I was still able to skate ski on it. Not very gracefully though. Since this is Sky’s first winter, she is learning about skis and skiing and staying away from the potentially dangerous (to her) sticks on my feet. And to her they are sticks and she just loves sticks. I haven’t even tried using poles around her yet. This was our second ski outing and she did better. A few other folks were out enjoying the ice and bluebird skies too. They were ice fishing, ice skating, classic skiing and playing with dogs. I saw one Great Blue Heron perched high in a snag. I wonder if the bird has learned to steal fish from the ice anglers? Most of them hope to catch perch but trout and kokanee salmon seem to be easier to catch.

Ice anglers

So I learned the easy way to tell the difference between a rainbow trout and a kokanee. The trout has a colored pectoral fin – that fin closest to the gills – while the kokanee’s is clear or white.