Lake Nockamixon in Upper Bucks County is big, at least for the area, and it’s polluted, at least too polluted for swimming. While it may not be the old swimming hole that some might yearn for, it hosts hundreds of landlocked sailors and their vessels. It’s a busy place during the warm seasons with horse riding, bicycle trails, a swimming pool, picnicking and all that boating. With busloads from Philadelphia and elsewhere it just gets too busy. But where are all those revelers at that other time of year, when it’s cold, the woods are gray in their nakedness and the docks are stark against the snow-covered ice? No boats, no people, no cars -- just winter’s peace.

© 2007 George J. Bancroft Sr.