photo's and video Spring Lake (Scott County) Nov 30th

[Desperado]

Went out from the Public Access on the SW side of the lake today (Sun Nov 30).

For about the first 30 yards there's 4 inches.

Then you cross some broken/refrozen chunks and there's 2 inches. 

Then you get to a pressure crack with wetness extending about 2 to 5 feet on each side of the crack.  DON'T GO NEAR THE CRACK.  Beyond the crack there is LESS THAN 2 inches.

We were in a vehicle that floats and will drive out of the water back onto the ice.  We crossed the crack, then turned around and while recrossing we broke through.  I would not have tried it if I was walking.

We then drove the North shore from the reeds on the west end over to the winter access (NE side of the lake). There is a large open spot out in front of the winter access. We broke through again just west of the winter access, between shore and the large open spot. I would NOT EVEN TRY WALKING OUT from the WINTER ACCESS yet.

My passenger took pictures.  I'll post them when I see them from him.

[Desperado]

Well here's the report from my passenger. (pics and video at the bottom of this post)

I was invited to go out on the ice with an old friend Don, sunday afternoon.
We were going to try prior but it was only half frozen, so we headed to Spring lake in the south metro. we got there and found it completely froze over.
Don opens the trailer and pulls down his ATV? Car? Boat? called a Wilcraft.
I know that there are a few vehicles made that can go in the water, but this one had my interest because he said you can go through and drive back up on the ice. I had to see it to believe it. We drove out on the ice and it was thicker in the bay, 4 inches, once we got out a ways from the landing it thinned down to just over 2 inches! It seemed to do just fine, making some crack noises and all.
I gave it a try and it was easy to get the hang of. I drove around a bit, til I saw a big crack up ahead! I decided to let him take the stick for that. We drove over it near shore and crossed it fine, I doubt someone could cross by foot though! water came up through when we did it.
We turned around and I egged him on to go back across in the same spot, i wanted it to break some ice, i figured since we were close to shore, if it didn't work I could at least jump in and wade safely to shore.
We got almost across and down we went! I dont think I am scared of water or thin ice, but the suddenness of it almost took my breath away!
it took a little work but we were able to get back on the ice! whoo hooo it works!
I was satisfied that it does what they say it does so I said lets stay away from those cracks!
We decided to go arounfd the lake near shore over to the winter access and take a few pics and mabye even try fishing.
We were almost there when without any warning down we went! This time I was a bit more concerned, we were in about 20 feet of water surrounded by thin probably unwalkable ice, plus in full view of a dozen houses on the shore. I was also worried one of them would call 911 thinking we were gonna sink!
But Don did a good job of getting us out of that one. the Wilcraft floats well and is sturdy, but doesnt have much speed in the water, you would have to put a trolling motor on it if you wanted to go anywhere far on open water.
We got up halfway about four times only to break through again, finally we were out all the way, I took a pic of the big black hole we left, but I did not enough battery power in my camera to take a video of that part of the adventure!
Thanks for the fun outing Don! Mabye next time we might even wet a line!

The big black hole, after about 4 attempts I was really glad to be out of there!


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-35N8YNFrGM&eurl=http://mtbucket.blogspot.com/[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPL7jzZUDes&eurl=http://mtbucket.blogspot.com/[/youtube]