Winter cottage update

Today Eric, our intrepid adventurer, set out across Rice Lake on cross-country skis to get a sense of what the lake is like in winter. He brought a cordless drill with a monster wood auger bit to see how thick the ice was in preparation for us possibly heading out onto the ice with a vehicle. Every spot he drilled was at least 18" thick; That's as far as he could drill and he never hit water.

Here's the view from the end of Wood-duck where there's a public boat launch. You can see a local unloading a sled from his truck on the ice. In the far distance is an ice fisherman setting up his clamshell.

This next photo is the view from water level at the boat launch, out towards the Island. Hello Eric's shadow!

Hmm. Or maybe he's halfway and snapping a picture of the shoreline? Judging by the shadow direction of the snowmobile dude, I think this is the case. (This is what happens when your photographer refuses to contribute to the blog.)

Clearly we are not the first people to think about driving out to the island. This truck was parked outside #28.

I'm not 100% sure, but this next one looks like the view from the end of our dock (if it were in the water) back towards the mainland. Note the tracks.

And this one is the view from our porch in winter.

Here's the hill up from the cottage towards the park in the centre of the island. If we had a bit more snow we could toboggan!

And lastly, this is an ice rink that Eric passed on his way back from the cottage, replete with hockey net. Nice!

Since he had such a favourable outing today and the weather is promising to remain cool this week, I'm 99% sure we'll be venturing out to the cottage with a few loads of stuff next weekend.

This is the first time we've been out since taking possession of the place. It was a good fact finding mission. We got to see what the lake is like, and whether people were driving on it. Also, I got Eric to measure a few places I hadn't measured yet and photograph the cupboard contents so I could see what was left behind (a visual inventory before I go shopping!). Lastly, Eric removed the kitchen cupboard doors to bring them home so they could be retrofitted to remove the narsty orange  plastic and be painted before the spring.

Good times!

UPDATE: Just saw a posting on the local Rice Lake BBS from someone who was talking to an ice fisherman at the Island today who said the ice is 24-in. thick. For what it's worth, the government of Canada claims that 61 cm of ice (24 in.) will support a 13-ton aircraft, parked. "Metric ton or imperial ton?" you ask? (African or European?) 13 tons is 26,000 pounds. 13 tons (long) is 29,120 pounds.13 metric tons is 28,660 pounds - or, about as much as an empty schoolbus.

And you thought you wouldn't learn something today. tsk tsk tsk.

UPDATE UPDATE: The curb weight (unloaded) of a 2004 CRV is 3,318 lbs. The gross vehicle weight rating (the max it can carry, including curb weight) is 4,320 lbs. Somebody's been googling!!