THUNDER BAY — Sonia Kaminski is a local winter cycling enthusiast.
She had her "most magical ice experience" last week, on a 25-kilometre loop around Nipigon Bay near Red Rock.
Kaminski joined a group to fat bike along the shoreline south and cross the bay to Burnt Island before returning, she has been on many lake ice riding adventures with them since 2021.
“It was just perfect and the way the sun was shining and the colour of the water, it felt tropical almost,” said Kaminski.
Winter fat biking is akin to mountain biking but uses much wider tires to get traction on the snow.
“I just couldn’t even get over the colours and the sun and the blue sky and we had a little fire on the island halfway through for lunch to warm up our fingers and warm up some food and yeah, it was a pretty beautiful day,” said Kaminski.
She said ice biking adventures can take six to eight hours, which is a lot of time to be out in the cold and requires a lot of preparation.
“We’ll look at the ice conditions via satellite and then study the currents and the wind forecast and then from there, we’re able to pick a spot where we know, ‘OK, we can probably get like a 20-to-30-kilometer ride in this area and then we’ll just take off and see how it all goes,” said Kaminski.
However, she said fat biking requires a specific bike because it needs specialized frames and bikes that can accommodate a fork wide enough to fit its fat tires, as well as studded tires that allow them to go on black ice without necessarily slipping around.
“There was one season where I tried to get away without studs and it was a lot slower and a lot more nerve-wracking,” said Kaminski.
“So, I highly recommend studs even for conditions in town over the last couple of winters. Just having that extra safety and that extra security, knowing that your tires are going to hold on if you do hit an icy patch on the trails, is really handy.”
She said a long period without snow cover, led to incredible opportunities to take advantage of the region's big lakes this year and last.
“The last couple of winters, we haven’t had as much snow, so the ice conditions have been perfect for spending time on ice,” said Kaminski.
“The safest time to be on the ice is when the ice is super black and clear, so even visually, you can see the depth as it changes. When there’s snow cover on top of the ice, it adds that extra bit of mystery and is harder to tell as you’re moving along what’s going on beneath you.”
She said often, when the snow picks up and gets a little bit heavier, she’ll mountain bike on the groomed trails at the Shuniah Mines area, but when those trails are really icy and the lake ice is perfect, she tries to take advantage and bike the lake while the conditions are "mint."
There are a few places in town, she said, where enthusiasts can rent a bike with prices ranging between $35 and $50 a day.
She also recommends looking on the Blacksheep Mountain Bike Club socials, which posts when and which trails are groomed.
Kaminski said it’s a fairly accessible sport where you "can pick up your rental, slap on a helmet and just take off from Trowbridge Falls and see how you like it."
