On Wednesday, Dec. 29, on what was expected to be the last day of record low temperatures, Langley City resident Roger Schmidt was barbecuing hot dogs on the frozen surface of Brydon Lagoon, the wildlife sanctuary and public green space located at 5257 197th St.
He set it up on top of a hand wagon, under a shade umbrella, sweeping loose snow off the ice to make a space.
“I think this is probably the best thing to happen in Langley in 2021,” Schmidt commented.
“I figured I’d come out, cook a couple of hot dogs, invite some friends out for a nice skate.”
Schmidt happens to live near the lagoon, and said a lot of people were taking advantage of the opportunity to skate presented by the freeze-up.
“There was probably 100 people here, yesterday,” he estimated.
“There’s about eight different rinks people were playing hockey on.”
On Wednesday, the players included six-year-old Thomas Pett, who was going up against adults twice his size in a friendly, low-key match, and not the least bit intimidated.
Dad Jacob, who was in goal, said his son was a “little unsteady” on his skates, but was having fun.
He explained they were from Cloverdale, but live just across the Langley City border from the lagoon, and were regular visitors when the weather was warmer.
With the exception of the centre, most of the lagoon was thick ice, with people scraping out spaces for hockey and skating.
Someone had even cleared a track around the entire lagoon for people to do laps.
READ ALSO: VIDEO: How Langley coped with record low temperatures
READ ALSO: Arctic outflow finally eases for Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley
While the arctic outflow warning about lower-than-normal temperatures was ended on Wednesday by Environment Canada, there was a still a looming snowfall warning for Langley, as well as much of Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and Sunshine coast.
A storm system was expected to move across the south coast of B.C. bringing widespread snow Wednesday night, tapering off by Thursday morning.
Five to 10 cm of snow was likely, with most regions seeing close to five cm fall within within three to six hours overnight.
More photos from Brydon Lagoon can be seen online at the Langley Advance Times Facebook page.
Is there more to the story? Email: dan.ferguson@langleyadvancetimes.com
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