The ice cometh, man…

February 04, 2022| People, Recreation

By: Caitlin Doran

... and with it comes long-beloved winter recreation on Lake Hopatcong

Wintertime at the lake brings with it a smorgasbord of activity as treasured as the ice itself! Yes, the arrival of ice and snow means slogging through the standard inconveniences of shoveling, waking up early to clean off one’s car, bundling up, etc. But the ice and snow also signal the return of the familiar sound of shrieks and laughter from Hopatcong State Park, as kids (and kids at heart) slide down the snowy hills on sleds and rafts. And there is something so special about an otherwise stark-white lake dotted with the colorful tents and trappings of ice fishermen and women, patiently waiting for a tug on their lines.  Without winter, we wouldn’t know the sound of hockey sticks slapping the ice, or the thrill of ice boats whooshing by. And it all really depends on perfectly icy, snowy conditions.

The ice has a history at the lake that predates us all. We have a Lake Hopatcong to enjoy thanks to the movement of glaciers during the Pleistocene era, some 125,000 years ago - which makes the historical jump to the last century feel quite small!. During the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, ice was big business at Lake Hopatcong. The ice industry employed hundreds of workers each winter, and trains carried tons upon tons of ice to urban areas, like New York City. Some ice was loaded into ships in the New York Harbor and transported as far as the Caribbean and South America! Ice was a critical part of life back before the advent of electric refrigeration. Ice sat in ice boxes, keeping one’s food cold. The harvest, transport, and sale of natural ice for commercial purposes revolutionized the food industry and lead to the introduction of new foods and beverages, previously unavailable for local consumption.

In a normal winter season, the lake typically produced two ice harvests. And the abundance that wasn’t harvested supported - and still supports - lots of recreation opportunities! During the lake’s peak resort years of the 1920s, winter carnivals became popular. These carnivals, which were publicized in periodicals like the New York Times, featured sports like ice yachting and drew crowds of thousands to the lake. At its peak, the 1926 carnival reportedly saw 15,000 people (now there’s a number for the annual Lake Hopatcong Block Party to aspire to, right team?), and featured sports like skate sailing, ice hockey, and ice yachting.

Skate Sailing

Skate sailing is a wind sport that dates nearly as far back as the invention of the ice skate. It originated in the Scandinavian countries and was introduced to North America in the early 1900s. Lake Hopatcong was formerly one of the “hotbeds” for the sport and served as the longtime home of the Skate Sailing Association of America (SSAA), which was organized in 1922 and active through the 1990s. Competitions were held, with winners published in the Lake Hopatcong Breeze. One can schedule a visit to the Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum and see the archives for the SSAA and pictures of its members.

To skate sail, one holds a sail in one’s hands or leans it against the windward shoulder, using the power of the wind to glide. This can also be done on skis or other sliding footwear but was popularized on skates. The sail is generally rectangular or triangular and about 50 to 60 square feet large, but the “Hopatcong Sail” was a favorite of the SSAA and was more rounded. Back then, the sail was typically made of muslin, lightweight sailcloth, balloon silk, or nylon. Long, tubular racing skates, 16 to 18 inches in length, were used and speeds of up to 55 miles per hour were recorded! Unfortunately, by the second half of the twentieth century, the sport was little practiced, but there are still folks on the lake who have memories of skate sailing and, on rare occasions, a skate sailor can be spotted out on the ice!

Then 

Ice Boating

An ice boat, or ice yacht, is a recreational or competition sailing craft supported on metal runners for traveling over ice. Ice boating or “hardwater sailing”, originated in the Netherlands in the eighteenth century. By the mid-19th century, the sport was firmly established in the United States, where it became popular with affluent sailors - among them, the Rockefellers - who could afford to captain great ice-going yachts with 1,000-foot sails. However, a design by Oliver Booth in 1790 in Poughkeepsie, which involved a square box atop three runners, made the sport accessible to those of more modest means. During this period, ice boating flourished on the Hudson and Delaware rivers as well as the Shrewsbury and Navesink Rivers near Red Bank, NJ. The North Shrewsbury Iceboat Club was formed in 1880 and is one of the oldest clubs still in existence in the U.S. In addition to organized clubs at Lake Hopatcong, Budd Lake, and Red Bank, the New England Ice Yacht Association has chapters in six New England states. An “ice line” enables ice-boaters to telephone for information on Regattas and conditions, and there are six different iceboat regattas in the tri-state area, which take place on a tentative rotating schedule.

Because of their low resistance to forward motion over ice, iceboats are capable of exceeding speeds of 60 miles per hour. Iceboats are classified based on adherence to “one design” structure and/or by the amount of sail area. Antique wooden ice yachts are typically “stern steers”, thirty to forty feet long with gaff-rigged sails over 250 square feet. The fastest boats are called A-skeeters. These are one design, hold one person, and carry 75 square feet of sail. Then there’s the Yankee class: a two-seater, one design boat. The DN (Detroit News) is the most popular one design boat in the U.S. and Europe. It has an opened cockpit and 60 square feet of sail area. You’ll find all kinds out on the ice of Lake Hopatcong and Budd Lake when conditions are just right!

Then & Now

Ice Hockey

Going back a century, River Styx, which is shallow and among the first areas of the lake to freeze in winter, has long been a sought-after spot for ice hockey and, in the heyday of winter sports on the lake, featured competitive men’s ice hockey leagues. Today, you can find pick-up games of ice hockey played in front of homes and in coves all around the lake. Just one of the groups you can catch playing on Sundays is the “Hopatcong Pond Hockey Club”, formerly Patrick’s Pub Hockey Club: a group of friends from Elba Point, Crescent Cove, Byram Cove, and Sparta, keeping the joy of ice hockey alive on Lake Hopatcong!

Then & Now 

Ice Fishing

Lake Hopatcong is one of the finest lakes in the state for ice fishing, and on weekends especially, you can find fishermen and women hauling their gear out in sleds, and you can hear gas-powered augers cutting holes in the ice. Many species of fish, including warm water species like largemouth bass and sunfish, are active and susceptible to ice fishing techniques. Two of the more popular and widely distributed species are the chain pickerel and yellow perch. Both species are generally found in shallow depths. Sunfish and crappie also school up and can be caught in good numbers. Large predators like smallmouth and largemouth bass are also on the prowl and provide a little more challenge. Holdover trout are a prize that have been pulled from the icy lake, too. A great group from which to learn about fishing on Lake Hopatcong, including ice fishing, is the Knee-Deep Club, which, conditions permitting, holds annual ice fishing contests.

Then & Now

And then there’s…

Cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, snowmobiling, and ATV-ing on (and around) the lake – the latter being permissible on the lake as long as the vehicle is registered, insured, and you are wearing a life vest.  Sledding is extremely popular on the large hills to the right as you enter Hopatcong State Park. Or maybe you’d like to get your “snow legs” on the bunny hill to the left, over by the Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum…

Then & Now

Photos courtesy of the Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum and Caitlin Doran 

Speaking of the Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum, many thanks to Marty Kane and the museum for their contributions to this article. Part of my inspiration for writing this piece is the winter Olympics in Beijing, which begin today and run through February 20. Amazingly, we couldn’t find any account of a winter Olympics athlete training at Lake Hopatcong. However, we will be rooting on three-time Olympic medalist and winningest World Cup slalom skier, Mikaela Shiffrin, in Beijing. Mikaela’s family hailed from Dover; her grandparents, Betty and Al, were active members of the Lake Hopatcong Yacht Club and her parents, Jeff and Eileen, were competitive skiers. You can catch her, Sarah Escobar of Sparta (Alpine Skiing), and Kenny Agostino of Flanders (Ice Hockey), in the weeks to come. And in the meantime, you don’t need to be a competitive athlete to enjoy all the winter activities Lake Hopatcong has to offer. So, get out there and have some fun (safely)!