Ice roads are in

texting with Bob and he says the roads are in,a little rough with slushy detour Allens Reef.
Use caution and be safe,happy new year to all

Ice roads

Bob says they started plowing the ice road from 12 mile Portage to south end (Windigo) good ice conditions down there.
The ice between Town and 12 mile not as good, 7" in the Slush areas and  in areas where slush froze 15"
That 7" is only strong enough for small truck like Dodge Dakota, need minimum 9" for regular size 1/2 ton.
This cold snap should help build ice

Update

This was Bob's report this morning : Bigstone is open around Needle Point, with only 2-3" ice in middle. Has slushed up from 12 Mile to French Portage. The people at Windigo are traveling south to States. Nobody else moving around on ice yet.
That Colorado Low at beginning of the week dumped 30 cm over entire LOW.

Ice conditions

couple items to report on : it's Rick doing this posting under Peter's name as we cannot get past the sign in security!
Rick Shaw if you want to contact me at jacksonrd919@gmail.com I will put you in touch with current owners at French Narrows, He has agreed to answer your questions.
Bob was out in his iceboat yesterday as far down as South tip of Queer Island. Said Manitou was frozen,still open water in Bigstone and into Matheson Bay.
Last report 3.5" ice in Welcome Channel

From Rick

Quick note, Welcome channel and Safety bay froze last night, still open water in Manitou

From Rick November 9 th 2017

Laurenson lake froze last night and we are about a week or 2 behind.  Foot Bridge to Coney goes in on 14 th

Test

Test From i pad from Az. Nov 13 17

Last post

We heard that as of Sunday there was only a little ice left in Bigstone Bay. With today's winds the last of it should be gone ? My plan was to head that way today but was a white out most day. It started snowing at 7:10 this am. with 2" on ground at noon and 7.5" by 17:00
Safe boating,see you in fall

Coney Island Bridge

We  heard the bridge will be coming out Wednesday April 25 . The first boat came from the Elbow this afternoon and ice that was South of French Narrows has disappeared. We had a 1/4" rain with a strong NW wind today that should help eat away at the ice in Bigstone ?

Open to BarePoint

To get to BarePoint on 18 th I had to got out and around in the Manitou. Pushed through a lot of ice but made it.when we got back yesterday all the ice is gone around Scotty's and the Hades. Still white ice in Bigstone. There is still ice about 1 mile south of French Narrows. Looks clear down boat channel towards Sioux Narrows.
Lake level is up about 2" from melt/runoff.

From Rick April 18 2017

I made it to BP , still lots ice to push through, big stone still over 5" thick and solid

Rick's pic April 2017

This was Monday April 17 2017 in front of Frezzells

from Rick April 2017

This was yesterday ,Edlunds hay island going into Moore bay

April 15 th update

Last 2 days have been windy,first from SE on Friday to NW today. Also had a little rain overnight,we need a good soaker,has been no precipitation past month.All snow has melted in bush,frost coming out and drying up. The lake level is a little low but has come up a little since the spring melt has started. This morning we had a piece ice the size of a football field float past. I went out after lunch to see how far I could get .Left our Dock and followed boat channel to Queer,had to slow down few times pushing through mushy candled ice. Made it to Allan's reef by following old ice road then ice became thicker so I turned East towards Railroad and stayed on south side to the red Bouy at the East end of Railroad. From here I made it to within 200 yards of Cat Island pushing through mushy ice. The ice was getting too thick to go any further ,could see the open water at Strawberry Narrows .
The ice in the Hades was just as solid,from here I headed East into Moore Bay again pushing through mush ice about 3" thick but candled. Once through the Narrows at Dwight Nicks was open water all way into Moore Bay Lodge and as Far East as you could see past the green Bouy. My guess it's open to Eagles Pass. We should get to Bare Point by Tuesday at latest.??? Solid ice South and East of our place. Have heard you can boat from town to Camp Stevens and just short of Scotty's beach. So there is not a lot of ice stopping us from getting to civilization!

Hit publish to quick !

Forgot to add that the earliest we have made BarePoint was on April 10/2012
Latest was May 19/2014
My first ice out prediction was April 25-going to be close.
And it will not allow me to attach photo ? Will try attach in comment section .

Ice update

yesterday I made it as far as Green Bouy E25, will try attach a photo. The top 2" is clear hard ice and bottom 4" is candled.
Greg says it's open water from Queer south into Elbow.
Terry says they can boat from Town to camp Stevens.
In past years when I can push through the ice to this location we have made it to Bare Point anywhere from 7-14 days.
Ice to the South of us is still pretty solid,boat just slides up on top and sits there.
It's -5 this morning and calm so that means we made another 3/8" ice overnight. What we need is a good soaker rain and some wind and this ice would disappear quickly.

We are back !

took truck off the ice Mar 24. On Mar 25 we had approximately 20 geese in the open water at the Narrows along with Golden Eye Ducks. Mar 30 was probably last quad trip to town. We have open water on our side of French Narrows Portage. Tip of Queer Island you have to go over rocks  as it's all open water. Our landing on South Side of Island is now open water. Guessing we should be able to boat to town April 25 ??