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