This just arrived in my InBox from the Friends of Hemlock Gorge
Join us for ice skating on New Pond on Sunday 1/31, at 1:00pm for a fun time!
The Friends of Hemlock Gorge invite Newton residents to enjoy ice skating on New Pond at 1:00pm Sunday). Today we shoveled off the snow to reveal fairly smooth ice, drilled to determine that the ice is about 8″ thick (very safe), and flooded rough spots with water so that tomorrow the conditions should be pretty good for pond ice. A hockey net will be set up in one area while another area can be used for general skating. BYOHC (Bring Your Own Hot Chocolate) and, if so inclined, a hockey stick. This can be our reward for the frigid weather we’ve been having! Hope to see many of you there, even if you don’t have skates but just want to hang out with neighbors.
New Pond is the little known body of water that flows into the Charles River at Hemlock Gorge. “New Pond lies along the south side of Rt. 9 just west of the Stone Barn with parking on Ellis Street in Newton Upper Falls.”
This is a great local tradition in recent years. It’s the brainchild of my neighbor Lee Fisher with help from Evan Westrate who’s often behind anything fun going on around here.
Lee monitors the conditions all winter. Since this isn’t tended and managed ice he needs to wait for just the right combinations of weather conditions to get deep enough ice with a smooth surface then they shovel it off and alert the neighborhood.
Be sure to remember your masks!
Thinking about the borders, I wonder if New Pond is actually in Needham, and if not then Wellesley.
Anyway, stay safe and have fun everyone!
To Bill’s point, very Neighborly of the Friends of Hemlock Gorge to invite NEWTON residents to a pond that’s half in Wellesley, half in Needham, and not at all in Newton.
As of this morning, the city has officially opened the Cove in Auburndale for skating, too. It’s bumpy, but beautiful. Call the hotline at 617-796-1536 to check the status before heading over.
Yes the Friends of Hemlock Gorge welcome neighbors from Newton, Wellesley and Needham – the park is in all three towns.
Hell they’ll even welcome skaters from Natick, Athol, or South Worthington. They’re a welcoming bunch.
Google Maps seems to think the pond is entirely in Needham (in fact defining the town line), but in official Needham town maps it’s divided between Needham and Wellesley.
Wonderful! Thank you!
Who gives a sh*t about town borders! Jerry, thanks for organizing this. Just seeing this now. Had I known, would have come down with a shovel to help out. Perhaps next weekend if we don’t have get too much melting this week. Snow is coming but so are warmer temps.