A river runs through Hockeytown USA, and you can skate on it for miles.

WARROAD, MINN. – I laced up my skates at the mouth of Lake of the Woods, beside a row of boat docks covered in snow. Ahead of me lay miles of the twisting, frozen Warroad River, which I planned to skate — in the dark.

Yes, this might ordinarily be a bit foolish. Running water doesn’t always freeze safely or at least smoothly.

But in Warroad, a glassy and surprisingly wide expanse of open ice forms a trail that snakes past houses and yards strewn with hockey nets.

On a Sunday evening in late January, the Riverbend Skate Path was mostly mine to explore. The glow from my headlamp and lighted decorations along the way were bright enough to stickhandle with a puck and dodge any cracks. A couple of snowmobilers buzzed by on the riverbanks. A deer also bounded in front of me, stopping to gaze into my headlamp.

I zipped by “no wake” warnings and a poster advertising a hockey camp led by the legendary Gigi Marvin. One end of the path is a little roundabout plowed in the snow. The other is marked by a pair of neon-green fake palm trees and a sign asking boaters to yield for seaplanes.

This skate is unlike any other in a state obsessed with hockey, and that’s why I made the six-hour trek north from Minneapolis. After decades on manicured indoor rinks or carefully flooded outdoor ones, I wanted ice with a little elbow room, where skating feels more like hiking or cross-country skiing and is free from the confinement of hockey boards.

“Wild ice” outside is usually available only when there is a spell of cold weather without snow. It’s also most often early in winter, when skating thinner ice can be risky.

Not in Warroad, aka Hockeytown USA, a small community near the Canadian border. For months every winter, a volunteer network plows, scrapes, floods and polishes what has become a unique attraction for hockey nuts like me.

Jared Olafson started the trail along with neighbors during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. They wanted to connect their houses by ice for their kids and from there built it into a bigger project.

“Last year when we had rough ice, we got a whole bunch of iron and grader blades and different scrap iron that we were able to get donated to us and we welded a big scraper we can pull now behind our equipment,” Olafson said.

I got a small taste of this hard work an hour before I put on my skates. High school senior Nixon Norman let me ride along as he drove a Bobcat Toolcat fitted with a huge orange spinning brush to buff snow off the path.

The end result is not a wilderness trail, but rather a wonderfully accessible ice path that attracts skilled hockey players and new skaters alike. It’s easy to forget you’re on a river at all.

Initially, the path was 5 miles long in each direction. Olafson said few made it all the way to the end, and the enormous amount of work wasn’t worth the extra distance. Now it’s about 2.5 miles long, and about 20 feet wide.

“If we have hockey teams here on a weekend we’re probably out on the path two times a day through the entire weekend because it gets so chewed up,” Olafson said. “Last week we were on the path Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.”

The whole venture runs on donations. Olafson’s son sold hot chocolate at one point. Eventually they went bigger. Ironhide Equipment in Grand Forks, N.D., donated the Bobcat.

In turn, the path has made an impact on the city, drawing more youth hockey teams to tournaments and providing community service opportunities for local kids or a chance to “get a little work ethic,” Olafson said.

“I know you want to sleep in because it’s Saturday but guess what, it’s your turn to keep the path open for this weekend so you’ve got to get going,” he said.

Skaters can enter the trail at several points. Easy options are docks at Lake of the Woods Coffee Company or Lake of the Woods Brewing Company, just off Hwy. 11. You can also start at Doc’s Harbor Inn, where kids played pickup hockey Monday evening on a side rink shoveled out of the river. Doc’s also rents skates. In years with more snow, volunteers groom a ski trail along the skate path.

It took me almost 40 minutes to skate the entire trail and back at a leisurely pace. Some homeowners put out chairs so people can rest along the way. One pair of benches was labeled “Keith and Deb Landing.”

The path is open typically until mid-February. Olafson says the trail can get quite a bit of slush that early. He predicted it could last until the end of the month this year.

I skated the path again in the morning sun with only Mike Nelson of Roseau as company on skates.

Nelson came up to Olafson with a wide smile and lavished praise on the trail. He looked the part of polar hockey adventurer, dressed in a forest green windbreaker jacket and pants with an orange hooded sweatshirt poking out from underneath. His dog Archie trailed behind with a piece of firewood in his mouth.

Olafson said he’s run into people from Iowa, South Dakota and Ohio along the trail. He talks to anyone he doesn’t recognize. “They come kind of from all over,” Olafson said. “It makes it pretty interesting.”

Warroad isn’t the only option for people seeking an ice path experience. Here are a few others to try.

Wirth Lake, Golden Valley

A local wild ice enthusiast has been shoveling a network of twirling paths around this small lake. There are chairs set out at some points on the ice, like the Wirth Beach House. But at the canoe launch, it’s wise to bring a folding chair to avoid awkwardly putting on skates while standing.

Beautiful white blobs of air bubbles in the ice pop against the blue-black water. Yellow weeping willows stand out among trees on the shoreline. Watch out for the bumps and ridges that come with the more rugged natural ice here. What surprised me most were potholes created by frozen lily pads. In late January, a full spin around all the shoveled paths covered around two miles.

Gunflint Lodge and Outfitters, northeast Minnesota

This outfitter has been clearing skating trails on Gunflint Lake near the Canadian border for a Northwoods experience near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. In late January on Facebook, the lodge said it had more than six miles open.

Central Park Ice Skating Loop, Maple Grove

This 810-foot loop is refrigerated and offers a taste of ice paths without the ridges and cracks that can claim an ankle on wild ice. It has amenities like skate rentals and a cozy fire pit for a fun but accessible experience. The refrigeration also means better conditions when the winter weather is warmer than expected.

Boulder Junction Winter Park, Wisconsin

This northern Wisconsin town created a nearly milelong “ice ribbon” through a forest that it calls “The Glide.” There are forest ice trails in Canada that have drawn wide attention, but this one is much closer to home. It’s a four-hour drive from Minneapolis.

A local business group said a video on Facebook about the project opening got 1.2 million views in a week.