Ice is good! Here at least, on my lake, according to the criteria I’ve developed over the past many decades of watching the lake freeze each December. Although, sometimes it was in January. And once it was in November.
I love freeze-up. I love watching the ice form, watching the night temperatures drop, watching the wind take away the thin ice, and watching it form again the next morning. Most of all I love the first long walk on the ice.
I love checking how thick it is all along the way, and I especially like when every checkpoint is good.
This morning I carried a long pole, and Allan carried the long-pole ice-chipper. Fifty feet from shore, he pushed the snow away and chipped.
Three inches of snow, three inches of frozen slush, a half inch of water and three inches of clear black ice. Typical for a year like this when we get ice followed by snow followed by warm weather followed by snow, followed by a few really cold nights.
All that snow makes for a very long wait until the ice below it all can get any thickness to it.
Sometimes the slush comes all the way through the snow. Allan chipped these places too. As expected, there was lots of ice, both white and black. Black ice is best. We kept walking toward the far shore.
Whenever we came across lots of snow, he’d push it aside and chip away. Lots of snow insulates the water below which slows the whole freezing process. This time of year I’m a little uncomfortable on the places were the snow is thick. Happily, each time Allan chipped through, he found abundant ice.
We took a shortcut through a swampy bit that leads to the widest part of the lake. Allan started out by stepping onto the bushy bits at the edge of the lake. I chose to follow the narrow slow-flowing creek that drains the pond in the middle of the boggy swamp. I won! The creek flows too slowly to thin the ice.
The bushy bits hold all the snow, keeping the soggy ground below from freezing. He sank through bushes and snow and wet boggy stuff to nearly his hips. Then he joined me on the creek.
I let him go first, of course. Poking his chipper on the ice where we walked and along the bushy edges. No ice at the edges — lots of ice underfoot. The hardest walking was the second half of the swamp.
We only sank a foot or so through the deep snow and wet bog below with each step, but it took a lot of effort to slog through to the lake beyond.
Just beyond the little bay on that side of the lake there is a small hill I climb every year when checking the ice. From a little elevation I can see most of the way to the south end of the lake.
That’s usually the last place to freeze. Happily, all I could see from my lookout was ice and more ice. Except for maybe out there by the mid-way island. A pressure ridge often forms there early on.
The ice looked darker there from my viewpoint. We did not go close to check. Instead, we walked home the long way, on good ice all the way.
Viki Mather has been commenting for Northern Life on the natural world and life in Greater Sudbury since the spring of 1984. Got a question or idea for Viki? Send an email to [email protected].
