Winter activities beckon tourists to Lake Scugog
Everything from skating to ice fishing available for outdoors enthusiasts
Some of the best cross-country ski terrain anywhere outside Norway can be found on the Oak Ridges Moraine and the Niagara Escarpment, which are Toronto’s natural borderlands. What you can’t find so easily anymore is enough snow to make skiing possible. However, the freeze-thaw cycles that have replaced the old snowy winters have created other opportunities for winter fun outdoors. For much of the winter, local lakes and ponds are glassy smooth. Freezing rain in January is nature’s own Zamboni, and the result is far more winter days amenable to long, free skates on natural ice.
Suddenly, “Nordic skating” is the thing to do.
Skating the Lake Scugog shoreline
The best place to try Nordic skating near Toronto is Lake Scugog. It’s big and has lots of natural shoreline to explore, has little or no current and is so shallow it can be more ice than water by mid-February. It’s graced with the ideal staging point for a winter expedition: the cosy little town of Port Perry where you’ll find fishing huts from shore to shore. These people know their ice.
Ice fishing on the lake
If skating isn’t for you — or you’d prefer someone else to do the hard parts — you might be interested in ice fishing.
Most winters, there are hundreds of ice fishing huts out on the lake here. Either Scugog Ice Adventures (scugogiceadventures.com) or Lake Scugog Ice Hut Rentals (lakescugogicehutrentals.com) will set you up with everything you need for a full day or just for an afternoon.
Staying safe on the ice
The new universal mantra among public authorities in Ontario is “No ice is safe ice.” This can be true even if you’re skating on a hard-frozen lake dotted with fishing huts so it's better to be safe than sorry.
Ice is always treacherous over even slightly moving water, and conditions can change by the hour. At a minimum, you should carry a set of ice claws, which allow you to drag yourself back up onto the ice should you fall through, and at least one sharp pole to test the ice’s thickness as you go. The claws, which you wear on a lanyard around your neck, are available for a few dollars at Canadian Tire. Ski or walking poles fitted with sharp metal picks help push you along as well as keep you safe
Historic downtown Port Perry
The charm of Port Perry is its handsome main drag, Queen Street, with its beautifully preserved Victorian architecture and fine collection of bistros, bakeries and taverns a stone’s throw from the town dock. It sweeps directly down to the shore of Lake Scugog, creating a continuous red brick frame for the sparkling waters and the farms beyond. It’s rare for an upland Ontario town to communicate so respectfully with its own landscape, and Port Perry makes the most of its special character, having become a favourite destination for shoppers and browsers throughout the region. The historic downtown is crowded with as many fashion boutiques and shops selling country decor and gifts, like Luke’s Country Store at 207 Queen and Meta4 Gallery nearby. There’s not a single mall-like chain store among them.