Friends, this ice is still black ice, meaning very thin and easily cracked.  These cracks were started by an otter crawling over the surface leaving a concave path which has expanded due to warmer water underneath.  When i see this kind of ice, i remember my father loving to skate on this kind of clear sheet before the snow made the ice surface rough.  He would skate and skate until he was tired while we children would stick to the shallows.  I don’t swim well and did not enjoy watching the fish swimming below me, but he loved it.  I think most of his childhood memories came from skating away the winter with his friends and siblings.  Most of my skating memories stem from chasing my father while he skated backwards, taunting us to catch him.  We never did. til Tomorrow MJ