Holding Pattern

As you may have noticed from my posts, this week is all about watching the ice. Over on our Facebook page, I've been uploading photos of the progression of the ice out, and I find it so interesting to see the daily changes. Today finds us in a holding pattern......a little more melting, but no fast progress. The west half of the lake is wide open, as verified last night on our evening dump run. But the east remains this deep gray, almost black. It does not look inviting at all. We've been graced with a half-dozen goldeneyes, who seem to know I am coming down the hill long before I even spot them. I suddenly hear scrambling on the water's surface, and then a distinct whistling from their wings as they fly away.

The first photo in today's post was taken this morning. The photo above was from May 2, and the one below was taken on Sunday, May 1. The snow is but a distant memory for me, and yet it was just a few days ago. Today it is raining, and the temps have not gone below freezing for a couple of nights now. Perhaps we are truly on the path to summer?

This weekend is the Gunflint Green Up, the annual tree-planting event in areas of the forest that suffered the Ham Lake Fire four years ago. Saturday will find me helping to plant in the Iron Lake area. It is so gratifying to drive by the places that we have planted trees, and to watch the new growth spurts. With the right amount of moisture and sunshine, the seedlings thrive. It's nice to know that I've had a minute little part in that.

Sun and Warmth = Melting Ice

About the time when I'm thinking that winter will never go away, and the only way my hands will be warm is to keep them in hot dishwater.....then we get a day like today. The sun made an appearance for the whole day, instead of just a part of it, and really did a number on knocking down the ice on the lake. In the morning, it was frosty white with patches of gray. By day's end, it was mostly black. The wind was down, so there wasn't a lot of movement to the ice sheet. This evening, however, the wind is back up, so I expect it all to move around overnight. Some years, we've gone to bed thinking that it would be a few more days 'til ice out, only to wake up the next day and it was all gone completely. I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

We've been watching our usual markers for spring, and one of them is the melting of the ice in the creek above Sharlene's driveway. The water has been pouring steadily through the culvert for many weeks now, but the ice mass has not gone down. Instead, a channel for the flow was deepening itself. Tonight, Greg noticed that the channel is about three feet deep. Our fishermen have noted in the past how useful this ice is for coolers and keeping the catch chilled. It looks like we will have plenty of it available for whomever needs it. Greg thinks that remnants will still be clinging to the bank in early June.

Another thing we are watching is the progression of the lake level. We'd like to see the level reach at least the middle of our ramp. That would make a good starting point this spring. When the water reaches the top of our ramp, that is exceptionally high, and it can mean that objects on shore get pulled into the lake and go floating away. One year, we went down to the east end to retrieve a large dock that had escaped its moorings from a neighbor's property. It's almost like a treasure hunt when that happens.

Speaking of treasure, when we were out walking on the ice a few weeks back, Greg spotted a hat on the rocks along the shore line. He headed to pull it out, and found that it was a Heston's Lodge hat. It was a good mile and a half from our place, so someone had probably lost it to the wind while boating on some past day. He carefully hung it on a tree branch near shore, so that if the owner spots it, he/she can retrieve it. It's a little worn down, but still usable.

Tales of the Ice

It's been an interesting year for the ice. Throughout much of April, we were able to walk out on it and explore its variations. We enjoyed the sounds of it early in the month. The temps were still cold enough for new ice to be forming, and the booming continued for a good week or so. As the sun rose higher in the sky, the colors changed, transitioning from white to gray, and now, well on our way to black.

In the first week, it was still very safe, in spite of the full sunshine working on it. We enjoyed a trek to the other side, and saw some early signs of spring. Little trees were stretching high to greet the warmth after the long winter, and a small spider was making its way along. Thanks to the heat radiating, we could smell those first scents of spring, most welcome to our noses. It was definitely sunglasses weather, and we picked up a little color on our faces in nature's version of a tanning booth.

As the days continued, we intermittently got snow and the decaying process would slow down. We would think that all progress had been lost, but I still felt that the waters underneath must be working some magic. Soon we were seeing evidence of that, as the usual locations began to open up: the west end by the Cross River, the creek that runs down in front of the rustic cabins, the landing down in front, and our beach area. Our walks on the ice are now finished for this season, as the ice gets grayer and grayer. On the sunny days, though few and far between as of late, the ice is black, a clear indication of its eventual demise.

As we get closer to open water, I look forward to the break-up, when the wind pushes the ice sheets into shore, and they slide on top of each other. The layers sometimes retain a bluish color for a brief stretch, and we can see the honeycomb of the crystals. If a chunk breaks off that's small enough to hold, it is totally clear, not frosty like an ice cube. Occasionally, we see the power behind the wind, when ice sheets will slowly push trees and rocks in the way. It seems like a long & slow path, but then suddenly, one day, it will have vanished.

A fresh coat of snow brightens our landscape today, courtesy of Mother Nature. The storm that was predicted for Sunday and Monday looked to be a bit of a bust initially, with a mix of rain and snow on the first day. That night, it had pretty much stopped. I wasn't surprised, as it had often been like that this winter. But by Monday morning, I could see that this time, I was wrong. It had snowed through the night, and by the way the trees were frosted, it looked more like December than April. I had been commenting previously on how gray and dirty our snowbanks were looking. Someone heard me somewhere, and decided to change that. By midday, the snow had stopped falling, but the wind was blowing it off the trees, and it looked very much like a blizzard. We ended up with about six inches of heavy wet snow, yet another welcome contribution to our collection for filling up Gunflint Lake in a few more weeks.

Last year, our ice went out on April 10th. We were gone to Hawaii at the time, and so missed seeing the earliest ice-out in anyone's memory. This year, I think we will be on a more normal track, since the cold temps last week brought out the usual groaning sounds of ice-making. In December, we hear cool spaceship type sounds--pings and such, as the ice thickens. This time of year, it is a heaving noise, deep and guttural. I have seen new cracks, some almost a foot deep, the walls of ice about an inch apart. Down at the bottom, there is more ice, so I know it is still safe to walk on it. The other day, we ran an errand down to a neighbor's cabin, and we took the little truck. It was safer on the flat lake than the extremely icy road, with hills, twists and curves. Funny that I should be feeling that way, as I've not ever been fond of seeing vehicles larger than snowmobiles on the ice. It was, however, a fast, efficient and safe way to go.

The sun is out, and feeling warm, so that should go a ways towards melting this new batch of snow off of the road. Ever mindful that spring truly will return, Greg is busy working on his dock project today, putting new decking on top. He started last fall, doing a lot of welding and reinforcing on the framework. It seems funny that he should have to shovel off snow in April, just to get back to work. But quite possibly, a month from now, it will be time to be wheeling it into the lake. So I guess today is as good a day as any to get the job done. Some projects know no season, it is just that some days are better than others.

Any day is a good one to catch the sunset. Lately, as the sun moves more to the west from the southwest, we've been seeing great color in the sky. Another treat as we move towards the warmer time of the year.