There's a magic to outdoor skating

Finally, the lakes froze three or more inches deep. So deep that, with temperatures in the teens or lower, snow did not stick to the surface. It seems magical to me that water I swam and paddled in months ago can serve up a platform for outdoor aerobic exercise in the depths of winter.

I skated as a child, as a mother and, even after my son left home, on the lakes wherever I lived. In New Jersey, we used skate sails, holding them to windward, speeding along the lake surface and peeking through the plastic window of the sail to ensure we didn't collide with our fellow club members. In Minneapolis after I returned in 1999, I skated every winter afternoon I could on Lake of the Isles. Long, aerobic loops, often skating backwards.

Now I'm more cautious. Several years ago, I bought knee, elbow and wrist guards - designed for inline skating - from a sports shop. It takes a while to get them on, not to mention my old-fashioned lace-up skates.

It's magical to fly on your feet across a completely empty, quiet lake. Many of the houses are shuttered, summer places. Sometimes, a couple of dogs race down to bark at me. A raven might croak from a white pine. When the wind blows and the snow is cold enough, you can see down into the ice. When it's suddenly much colder, the lakes boom as the freezing process expands the ice. Pressure cracks extend several feet down.

I like to skate late in the afternoon, when the lowering sun casts long shadows of my limbs across the surface. As I skate, my fingers and toes warm up. The steam from my breath sometimes obscures the view through glasses or goggles.

I love how the entire lake surface becomes sculpted with windswept coves and ridges. You don't have to follow a path, unless you're pushing a shovel to make one, necessary after a two or three inch snowfall. That's fun too. Last year, my nephew Jack and I had an amusing time shoveling loops around each other.

My skating workout is aerobic. It gradually warms up the limbs. I've got my face swathed loosely in a wool scarf that will stay warm even when wet with breath.

Usually the good ice lasts only a week or two. After that, we are lucky to have ice skating rinks. Cromwell's Tom Johnson is making one again this year, and Cloquet, Carlton and other communities also create and maintain rinks. Skating is a great outdoor sport, as well as a muscle and balance builder. Hope to see you on some of our area's crystal surfaces soon.

Ann Markusen is an economist and professor emerita at University of Minnesota. A Pine Knot News board member, she lives in Red Clover Township north of Cromwell with her husband, Rod Walli.