Spring is in the air, and on the ground.
With warming temperatures comes the closure of many outdoor ice surfaces in the region. The County of Simcoe skate trail officially shut down for the year in early March, after two months of operation. This winter, the trail on the Simcoe County Museum grounds in Midhurst was open for 29 days, resulting in 6,195 skaters, making it the busiest year to date.
"A huge thanks to staff for maintaining the trail, which is a completely natural surface and currently doesn’t utilize a cooling system," the county said in a media release issued March 17. "Despite immense snowfall later in the winter and warm weather early in the season, museum staff worked hard to ensure that the skate trail could be operational as often as possible. The skate trail spanned over one kilometre through the museum grounds and surrounding forest and is open to the public every winter."
Earlier this month, Bradford also closed the rinks at Lions and Bud Brown parks.
And on March 13, the Town of Innisfil officially announced the closure of the Town Square skating trail and Cookstown outdoor rink.