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| Close to Ice-out Weekend April 16th & 17th |
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| The rain, wind, and heat have taken their toll on the ice. When we arrived late Friday afternoon the lake was liquid around the edges. |
| Some bravely walked about on the frozen lake but not us. |
| On Saturday morning the gap between the shore and the ice was larger but the real story was the weather. It was hot. It was almost 80 F and very sunny. Many July days have weather worse than Saturday's. |
| We had a moring mission: to attend the Forest County Maple Syrup Festival. The gym of the Crandon school was turned into a craft emporium. We waded through to the contest table with little damage to our wallets. Mr. EMT then entered his syrup and began a 6+ hour lament on how his product was to sweet. To see all the details on how the contest turned out |
| At around noon we launched a paddle boat and explored the edges. |
| The ice on the edges is about 2.5 inches thick and breaks off quite easily. |
| The ducks are were still hanging around. |
| The weather was so hot my niece and I decided to go for a swim. After diving in I almost made it to the ice before sprinting back. Victoria bolted back a bit sooner. April 17th is the earliest I have ever went into the water over my head. I don't plan on doing it again soon, the water is pretty cold this time of year. |
| The skies started to cloud up when we left. Heavy rain would pelt the lake ice that night and strong winds will further reduce it on Sunday. Ice-out could be any day now. We now have DSL! The webcam updates every 5 minutes and the weather will soon be "live". We'll be back next week. |