I was on White Pond in Putnam county today, ice skating only. There were at least a dozen parties fishing all over the lake, and we skated on perfectly safe ice for the first 2/3 of our tour around the lake. I was approaching a lone fisherman that was jigging near the middle of the lake, sitting on white ice but only 4 feet away from new black ice. We had already skated over other big sections of black ice that we knew were at least 6 inches thick by looking at the cracks that formed. I approached this area of black ice in the center and admittedly was being complacent because I assumed that all the ice was safe to skate - but something told me to STOP before I skated onto this large patch of black ice. Looking at it, it had not cracks in it, and I inched over to it from the adjacent white ice that I was on, nit far this fellow that was fishing. I put 1 skate onto this ice and the blade poked right through it with very little pressure. I backed away carefully and then told everyone I could not to go on this.
IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON GETTING ON WHITE POND, DO NOT CROSS IT IN THE MIDDLE BECAUSE YOU WILL BE IN THE WATER. Tomorrow, the lake will be covere by new snow, and you won't be able to see the transitions between the older, thicker white ice and this paper thin new ice. I don't know when the middle of the lake will freeze thick enough to be safe, for the next week at least, DO NOTY CROSS OVER THE MIDDLE OF WHITE POND. I am still shuddering to think about what my complacency today nearly caused me to do.
