Subject: Ice Road.

 

All ice roads are in.

Good morning everyone. 

As of yesterday Lenard plowed from Treaty island down past Queer island and into French Narrows. 

His report was 12" of good ice .

He continues plowing with his one Ton truck and will get to all locations.

 

If you plan on heading out please use caution as it's early in the season.

 

Have a great holiday season and be respectful of the road and conditions.

Remember. ...the Ice road is to be used always at your own risk.

 

Merry christmas.

Derrick

Subject: Re: Ice Road

As of today there are no iceroads built.

Len Boucha has not started with us as we keep in contact regularly during the ice road season.

Some are venturing out by sled and quad.    However in saying that they are on their own.

I will forward info as I get it and let you know.

Thanks

Derrick

Ice roads

I'm getting all this second hand,heard they have plowed to Treaty Isl. And heard they will be plowing down to Queer Saturday or Sunday,just waiting for it to cool down again, pressure ridges have been forming due to mild temps.

Hold the phone!!! Here is the scoop .

He drove down to our place with a Rav 4, put the plow on roof and drove it back to Matheson Bay.

Made alteration's to fit his truck.

Started plowing with a Ford 1/2 ton from Matheson Bay South to Windigo. Not enough ice closer to Town yet,says if conditions stay same may start plowing to Town next week.

Smith's report 8 3/4" around Queer.

 

1/2" rain from around 8 pm last night till now with more expected today

 

from Rick Jackson

Having trouble posting pictures from I Pad , going to ask another guy that was out flying to try and post his pictures. There is average of 5" ice between our place and Matheson bay,not enough for truck yet!

This would be the earliest freeze up in the past 10 years since we have been keeping records. I rec'd a second hand report Bob hopes to have ice road in by Mid December.

The lake has froze, 5" ice at South end Of Queer Isl. and 3" ice in Matheson Bay

Rec'd a report that it's ice as far as you can see looking out across the Manitou from Hare Island

Flashing over

The -21 temperature this morning is helping to form some ice.The North wind is still blowing but water is starting to freeze-thick like jello.

Laurenson Lake has froze over

Another season: Laurenson Lake is 1/4 froze over,once she freezes completely we freeze about a week later. Heard the bridge to Coney is going in Today

Ice is Gone!!

Boated from Bare Point Marina across Bigstone to Eagles Pass at 13:00 today and the only ice we saw was being pushed up against Hay Island ,and we had to go North side of Copper Island because South side had ice but with waves from East wind this will be gone by dusk tonight.Moore bay and Andrew bay are both clear,still a little white 2 miles South of French Narrows. This will be last posting till fall freeze up,Safe Boating!

BarePoint

Just in from a trip to BarePoint Marina,pushed through candled ice Rocky Narrows( should be gone by 17:0 tonight? Then had to go West side Lunnys because the ice in Bigstone was solid right up to East shore Lunnys,So West end Bigstone still Bigstone still White with ice, also you can not get into Hades from North end. There was also ice around day marker East side Scotty's but that should also be gone today.Tomorrows winds should bust up a lot of ice.Andrew Bay ice starts at Square Island and looks solid to East ? Also you cannot go more than 1/4mile passed French Narrows.

I made it out!!

At 10:30 this morning after I posted decided to give it another try! Boated from our dock to Queer Isl,through Elbow and followed South shore of Shammis Isl. To Crow Rock Island (shammis narrows) from here you can boat to town !! So anyone using Bigstone is out of luck,so if you normally travel through Scotty's ,Hades to reach your place you will be able to follow my route and get to camp!! Will post when ice out at Scotty's and again if Bigstone ever clears out!!

Still solid ice

Just got a call from Jeff Lunny and he said we still cannot get through the ice at South end Scotty's ,you can get around South side Nanton to Rocky Narrows but blocked after that. Looks like we will stay home and have a baloney sandwich!! Jeff said he would call me when we could navigate through there by boat. Have heard they are boating from Town to Welcome Channel through Holmstroms Marsh,Manitou still solid,same with Bigstone!

Boat ride

On the news this morning the Coney bridge will be coming out today. Yesterday we boated to Cat Island on East route,as far as the Red Bouy in Hades and 1/4 mile short of Eagles pass in Moore bay.Solid ice on North side of these points.Can boat around our Island but that's it solid ice beyond to South and East.Lunnys have boated from Town to beach at Scotty's, and say you could boat from BarePoint to Town so we only have a very small section of ice on East side of Scotty's to get through but Bigstone is still to thick. We are going to try for BarePoint Friday afternoon.

Not looking good?

We had 2 beautiful spring days,sunny,18c over the weekend.currently 6c,raining,damp,cold feels like a fall day,looks like we have this weather with a little wet snow thrown in till Wednesday, then a couple nights with minus. Not what you would call real good ice melting weather.talked with Terry this morning and he said they made it from Town to Camp Stevens on 9th,confident to reach Scotty's Island by 14th. The bridge to Coney will be removed 13 or 14 weather permitting and no later than 15th. Noon today I thought I could make Queer- not even close!! The ice has only receded from Red Bouy E26 half way to Green day marker @ Bald Island.The ice in this area is 9" thick and pretty solid. The Manitou is also solid,no cracks to allow movement.Its looking like we may have to ice boat family members down on 17th and hopefully boat out by 19th.

Good News

We have the exact same conditions yesterday as we did last year !! And we were able to boat out by May 14th.After the 1 5/8" rain stopped at 14:00 I ventured out to see how far I could get.Made it as far as Red Bouy # E26, at this point the ice was a little thicker @ 8" and the boat just drove up on top and would not move any further. To get this far I had to push through ice 5" thick.From this area I'm looking towards South tip of Queer Isl. I can see the open water at Queer but solid ice between us,by Monday Eve should be able to touch Queer Isl? Also my source on Laurenson Lake informs me she is almost 1/2 open,again exact same as last year,he expects it to be completely gone by Monday? Since the first open water showed up around the docks the lake has risen 7", should be a nice level by start boating.Now for the bad news,the only reason the ice went out when it did last year was the strong winds that switched from N then to S. The longest it has taken us to reach BarePoint once we get to E26 (site of the sample ice) was 9 days in 2009-that would mean boating on May 18th,From this day forward we need winds to get ice moving but this am. Winds are calm and the open water out front flashed over. Still cannot boat around our Island.Next post will be Monday Eve after I try getting to Queer.By clicked on pic will enlarge it.

Ice Thickness

Drilled the hole like I said I would,21.5" and worst part is it's still blue ice.A group of 6 ice boats went for a picnic yesterday afternoon South and West of Crescent Island.one of the couples lives in Tranquil Channel area and they boated to Kennedy island,picked up by ice boat and transported to picnic site.we had a bright sunny afternoon with only a light N breeze and a high of 10c.This morning the open water out front skinned over,2days ago when this happened it took till 13:30 that afternoon for the fresh ice to disappear! This morning,s forecast has a windchill,and 40% chance of flurries?Not exactly what you folks that are packing for th May Long weekend want to hear.It is still a little early yet but we will be telling our family to have a back up plan for long weekend.In our travels yesterday we crossed several holes 2-10' diameter ,also several cracks that were wet but no open water in them yet.The ice on the South side of the Barriers appears softer than the ice on the North side.The closest ice out prediction I can give is when we get the phone call that ice is out on Laurenson Lake ours is gone 7days later.

Slow Melt

With the screaming NE winds of the past couple days the ice has disappeared between our West Point to East Allie,as of yesterday we can canoe across. On Monday I went in to BarePoint Marina by ice boat.French Narrows has lots open water as well as Does the Elbow,the Most NE tip Queer has a long finger of open water heading towards Pipestone.There was a small open area around Strawberry,the rest of my travel was pretty solid ice. They are still driving snowmobiles from BarePoint to Scotty's and figure they will for another week,there is no sign of melting at the North end!! Will drill a hole on May 04 and post measurement,on that day last year we had 14" ice and boated in May 14th.Have only seen 1 skitter this Spring, hopefully the long cold winter has lowered there numbers!! Check out this new blog: www.icepatrol.ca

Melt

Drilled a hole yesterday and 27" ice!! The ice has melted at our landing and in a couple days will have to lay down a sheet plywood as a bridge.still too much snow in places where it blows in on the North side to walk around island yet.Mergansers and Golden eye ducks have been back swimming around in the open areas for about a week now.As well as Red Finch and a few songbirds.Took this picture on 23rd and since then it has doubled in size,last year on May 7 we could canoe across.The lake temperature is now 3.5C

Spring

Made last snowmobile/quad trip yesterday as the ice on the South side of the French Narrows Portage is no longer safe! It has melted away from shore about 5' and lots of holes. The travel on North side is still okay.There has to be more than 100 Geese at the Narrows as well as 12 Pelicans,saw bumble bee yesterday as well as a butterfly and Turkey Vulcher.the snow in the bush appears to have shrunk enough that this afternoon before the rain arrives we are going to try and walk around the Island for first time this Spring.There is a hole starting to open up at the corner of our dock,and when you walk out onto ice on our South side landing the water is moving up and down and holes big enough to get a booter ! I still cannot bring up pictures to post?? If anyone wants to see the slow melting process you can email me and I could forward pictures until we get this figured out?

Snow

Woke up to 1.5" snow,screaming SE winds all night. Still 12" snow in the bush. Yesterday the ice melted enough at the French Narrows Portage that my Quad was pushing a wave up onto shore as I approached.We went back through last years diary and we have same conditions today as we did last year.Last year be boated out May 14, lake temperature was 5.5c, difference being last year had warmer daytime high and low temps than our long range is forecasting.

Trip to Town

Snowmobiled to BarePoint yesterday,due to the -11 overnight all the standing water froze and snowbanks are like cement! Very bumpy ride had to drive slow.Took a picture of snowbanks to post but still having issues because of updates to IPad my pictures are not where they are supposed to be? This picture of truck showing snowbanks was taken March 29 beside main ice road,there are still banks there today!Raccoons,junco's,butterfly have returned. This weekend looks like our turning point with double digit highs and plus temps overnight? I have to go to Town on 21st so will give update on 22nd.

After the storm

Today is 8 days after the 10 plus inches we rec'd on March 31-she went out like a "lion" ! All that snow has disappeared and a lot of  previous snow as well,Temps have been H +8,L -4 so the freeze at night has sure helped to dry up the run off. Greg and Sherl Smith are now full time residents out here and Greg and I made a town run for fresh produce this morning. The trip in was uneventful,good snowmobiling on top of the crust,,but the return trip took almost 3hrs,water on ice road was up to running boards on snowmobile and so slippery underneath we tried running beside road-the snowbanks were crotch deep and would not support our weight,then water on top of ice and under snow was 12" deep. My sleigh and 5 gas cans is still sitting on ice North end Queer-retrieve it in morning on the crust.Will not travel again till all the snow has melted and water starts to drain off-at least another week or more,then we should be able to run around with quad-will do another post then.
We have a small strip of open water at the Narrows-now home to 7 Canada Geese and 2 seagulls,still no ducks yet.

Spring

There is not much new since last post,temps dropped and all standing water on ice roads froze solid so we were able to drive the truck again.Took a picture of my truck against the snow banks but cannot  bring it up? In places they are still 30" high,roads started getting wet again with yesterday's +7c. We have 1" fresh snow on ground with screaming NE winds,waiting for the predicted 30cm ! There are no double digits for daytime highs and no plus temps for overnight lows in the 14 day forecast. Looking like a later boating season,talked with a commercial fisherman and she said lake has always been open for May long. There is still no open water at French Narrows so we have not seen any birds down here,but geese and seagulls are hanging around open water in Kenora.Saw pair huge wolves in Dorian but could not get close enough for a picture.

Spring

This is the earliest we have taken truck off the lake.Yesterday it took us 3hrs to go 1 mile,at one point we had 2 trucks stuck. Both vehicles had chains on rear tires,the problem was the water was 16" deep with 3" thick ice chunks that would jam up underneath the vehicles and then we were hung up.Worst section of the road was on the South side of the French Narrows Portage. We will drive sleds from house to BarePoint,in some places in French Narrows area the slush under snow is so deep your stuck as soon as you leave packed trail ! Counted 5 Bald Eagles in Dorian Marsh last week.

Plowing

Rec,d email from Derrick saying Leonard and Bob were plowing the main road and will continue till it's open. The winds and amount of snow has hindered the clearing of individual driveways this will start as soon as possible. Reminder they do not plow on land