TCC for 1/31/08

The Caretaker's Concern 1/31/08
Ghetto temp. 50 F. and rising.
Island tmp. 26 F. Yesterday's L/H: 20/35 F.
Cloud covered sky, little to no wind.

The Caretaker needed to get into town today so he grabbed his life vest, two canoe paddles, and two sets of ski poles. He brought the canoe out to the ice at the shoreline, hopped in and began pushing himself across the ice. Given the uncertainty of the thickness of the ice, the Caretaker decided that pushing across in a canoe would be the safest way across. The ice was clear of snow and very smooth. There was no wind so he had no worries of being blown across the Lake. He made it over to the mainland in no time. Once you build momentum it is very quick going. The only thing you don't want to do is stop. Once you do the canoe sticks to the ice, not that it freezes to the ice permanently, but you do have to do a touch of extra work to get going again. While crossing the ice the Caretaker noticed that the ice was about two to three inches thick, he probably could have just walked across, but why take the chance? Ice-in so far has been rather, slow.

After getting to the mainland the Caretaker had to walk to his car, the ice on the roads was more treacherous than the ice on the Lake. After avoiding to fall a few times the Caretaker made it to his car. Hopped in, drove to town, did what he needed to do, then went back to the Island. After returning to the Island, the Caretaker grabbed his camera and then hopped back into the canoe. A large swath of the Lake, just off of the North East shore of the Island, was all open water. With no wind, it was almost perfect glass. The Caretaker pushed himself out to the open water, slipped in, and then began to paddle. He wanted to take advantage of the opportunity for reflection shots. He paddled around a bit then began to take photos. The water was open all the way over to Dome, so he paddled over there too and took some shoreline shots. Eventually the Caretaker paddled around to the East shore of Dome, the Lake appeared to be open all the way to Pilot Knob. The sun was on its way down so he had little interest in trying to paddle over to the Knob, there isn't much over there anyway. As the Caretaker was paddling back he noticed the water was starting to ice over. Small thin layers of ice were beginning to form, some formations looked like feathers, others looked like bird wings. The Caretaker tried to photograph some of the ice formations but wasn't all too successful, with the sun going down and falling behind thick clouds, it didn't provide too much in the way of bright light.

Overall, a nice day on the Lake.

--The Caretaker