My wife Tracey and our grrrls, Nicky (7) and Beth (6) prepare to take a ride on a snowmobile drawn dogsled.
This weekend was the annual Mushers Bowl in our neighboring town of Bridgton!
Highland Lake has a foot of ice on it and the weather was absolutely beautiful. The hitherto frozen masses turned out for ice skating, hayrides, snowmobile (aka 'skidoo') rides and dogsled rides.
Snomobile, dogsled and skijouring races.
Pancake breakfasts, chowder lunches, hot dogs. Rescue ice dive team demonstrations, craft shows, ice fishing, a Moose Doo catapault contest, broomball tournament and the Winter Carnival Dance at the Town Hall!
One of the most fun events (to watch) is the "Freezin' for a Reason" Ice Dip at 1pm on Saturday. The 'jumpers' have all collected pledges to jump into a large hole cut in the foot thick ice of Highland lake. The pledges benefit the Harvest Hills Animal Shelter which all of the local towns Animal Control Officers make use of. Last year for the ice dip, the air temperature was hovering in the low single digits. (if that!) This year everyone had it easy (said the photographer who stayed warm and dry through the whole event!)...the air temp was a near tropical above 40ยบF!
So basically, everyone lines up in a roped off channel leading to the water and they 'jump' into the water in teams....
Some plunge in to the water seemingly in anguish...
while others think that if they splash about a LOT it won't feel so cold...
But some take the time to revel in the adoration of the crowd...
All in all the whole weekend is a great time and luckily happens just when we all realise that there are 6 long weeks of bitter cold, snow, slush and ice left until the vestiges of mudtime begin to showup for sure here in Maine....then we get to complain about the black flies!
For those who care.... all photographs in this entry were made with a Nikkor 24-120VR lens on a Nikon D2H and sometimes with an SB30 flash for fill.
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