Spikey

Would you call that a spike?

I'd call that a spike.

Once that drops down to normal levels, the lake should be ready for boats. Squee!

"BbbbbbbBBbBbBbbbbbb" ← that's me making motor boat noises.

Ice is OUT!

The Rice Lake forum officially declared the ice was out as of March 18.

Holy Moly that is early

I've been waiting for a decent satellite shot to come up before I posted the news to El Blog. It's been overcast the past few days which has made that challenging, but as of March 20, I have a decent image. Voila!

There is no white to be seen on the lake (remember, this image shows Lake Ontario, you have to find the lake a little further to the north, running diagonally this way → / )

This is so exciting! Now I'll start stalking the water-levels page to see when the peak happens. The biggest impediment we have to getting back to the cottage soon is that dance season is well and truly upon us, and we'll be touring for 5 of the next 7 weekends *bites knuckle*. At least the princess and I will. We're not sure yet if the boys will join us.

Hopefully the captain, the wee lad, and Handy Dad will be able to scoot out there before May to get the boat in the water, set up the docks, empty the poohole (GDPH), and hook up the water.

COTTAGE SEASON IS NIGH!

Holy cow! Look how dark the surface of the lake has become!

Barb Howie at Islandview Harbour marina has been posting photos of the melt on Facebook. That marina caters more to cottagers on Cow Island, but here's a photo of the lake looking west from the north shore, towards Long (left) and the shore (right)

With tomorrow's temperatures forecasted to be 22°C , that ice out date is coming... and FAST.

Whee!

It looks like the lake ice is definitely thinning. Instead of snowy-white, it's looking more translucent/water coloured. There is clearly open water around Margaret's island, again near White, Rack, and Sugar islands, and again around the mouth of the Otonabee.

I don't think it's going to be much longer now. Especially with daytime high temperatures in the low teens all this week.

Water levels: 2012

The water levels are still constant, so I'm guessing the lake is still mostly ice. The latest satellites photos have all been overcast, so it's impossible to tell from here.

According to this graph, the spike in water level ought to happen mid-April, but I'm not sure what we're going to see this year. There's very little snow to melt/run-off, so I don't know how much/if there will be much of a spike this year. I suppose if areas to the north that feed into the trent system still have a lot of snow, we might see a typical spike.

The spike is usually our litmus test for putting the boat in the water. There's no point doing it before the spike, because the docks in the marina will be underwater, and our own dock would be at risk of floating away.

So, we wait.

Meantime, I'm thinking about junky bunky demo/reno (dremo?), living room ceilings, garden seeds, and other small projects like planters, bench/swing, painting kitchen table, refurb'd picnic table, upgraded stairs....

ACK! I'd better stop scheming now, or I'll have no summer left to enjoy the lake.

What a difference a few days makes!

Looks like ice out is already starting!

This was taken on March 7, 2012.

Ice report

The latest. No signs of melting.

Le Sigh.