Today we checked more ice, staked where our roads will be to some more areas.  So far we are at Pope’s Reef , (East, NW and NE side). Ray’s Reef (SE and NE sides)  Graveyard Reef SE, East and NW sides.  NW towards Hennepin Island to the east side of Tullibee Hole, West from shore to North Twin island and up the West side of Spider island to the NW side. There is alot of rough ice to our NW towards the Banana and west to the Tundra that I have yet to check and will wait until after the weekend.

We still have area of thin ice between shore and Gull Reef about a hundred yards wide that has anywhere from 4″ to 6″ of ice that runs from Popes Reef across to the west towards North Twin Island.  Where we crossed those areas we have been flooding and as they freeze we’ve ended up with  5 1/2″ to 7″ where our staked trails are. That should be enough for snowmobiles and small ATV’s to travel across if they run where we have flooded and froze.  Most other areas have 7″-10″.

Our office will be open tomorrow at 7:00 for portables traffic, walking, snowmobile and small ATV Traffic only.  Unfortunately the weather forecasted for this weekend even though we will be getting the cold weather we desperately need and will help alot will be accompanied by strong NW winds 15 to 25mph and gusting to 35 mph until Tuesday morning. There is enough snow out there that there will be possible visibility issues and drifting in the rougher ice areas.  Starting Friday when the winds pick up I will decide if we continue to allow access at that time.  Strong winds on the little ice we have sometimes can be a dangerous thing, especially as the cold gets to the “warm” ice.  Keep watching the report and I will update it as it goes.

Eddy

Today we checked more ice, staked what will be a road to North Twin Island. tomorrow we will go farther, but we got thru the troubled areas where there was only 3″-4″.  We flooded those spots and will do more tomorrow.  So far we are still on track for opening for portable fishing starting Thursday.  Tomorrow I will decide about snowmobiles and  ATV’s once I know what ice we made in the new thinner ice areas.   Watch the report, I’ll let you know. But so far it’s looking good.

The cold is coming starting Thursday evening with strong NW winds on Friday and Saturday. With what loose snow that is out there there will be considerable drifting.  So the weekend might not be a very good one for portable anglers.  We will just have to see what it looks like when it comes.

Eddy

Today we went and checked ice. With the new snow cover, (approximately  of 2″) it was much harder to check in the new ice areas of week ago, so it took more time.  We established and marked the Graveyard Road, the road to the NE side of Pope’s Reef on the deeper side, And our North Pope’s Road. Tomorrow we will be marking the Ray’s Reef road to the east side of it in the deeper water.  We encountered anywhere from as little as 5″ to as much as 9″ of ice.  I was the road stake guy today and as I was putting stakes in on what will be our roads.  4 times I drilled thru the ice in under 5″. (I set a stop at 5″ just for that purpose).  So we have a long way to go yet, and I’m hopeful that the colder weather coming this weekend will get us going next week.

Barring any more significant snowfall this week I plan on opening our access and office on Thursday for ATV’s and snowmobiles, (no Side by Sides) with portables. There will be plenty of parking in our field along the driveway and wheelhouses campers over this coming weekend when the time comes. I attached a picture, even though late this afternoon), of some of our progress.

  Click to enlarge

Tomorrow we’ll be back at it.

Eddy