More Ely ice conditions

[Lee Borgersen]

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Hook and Bullet Club - Snow!

by Nick Wognum...... Ely Echo


Snow - lots of snow blankets the Ely area, hanging from the trees, filling up yards and creating a lot of work for anybody with a plow on their truck.

A start to a winter with this much snow is something we haven't had for over a decade. Skiers, snowshoers and snowmobilers are thrilled by snow you can measure by the foot.

For the non-winter types, this is more than they can handle. You can hear the griping already.

"I don't have any more room to put the snow. And if that snowplow driver fills up my driveway one more time I'm going to chase him down with a shovel."

Funny how Mother Nature works. We had such a dry spell during the summer and early fall that the fire danger went past red into magma. Then the rains came and filled lakes to levels not seen in lifetimes.

The swamps never got a chance to empty and will give skiers and snowmobilers a new obstacle this winter: water.

With the high water levels in area lakes before freeze-up, if the winter continues at this rate you can expect flooding in low lying areas in the spring. Minnesota Power will have its hands and lakes full.

Right now most lakes are full of one thing: slush. We haven't had slush like this in a long time and many will be longing for the days of plenty of ice and not as much snow.

Until you've glided into a patch of slush on your cross country skis or buried your snowmobile to the running boards in slush, you can't fully appreciate what it means.

This is one of those years where the air holes have already appeared, especially on Shagawa Lake. Up the Echo Trail Big Lake is reported to have slush from one end to the other.

We were getting into some colder weather at the end of this past week and that should help. But the freeze down will be tempered by the thick layer of white insulation on the lakes.

If you want a trail across the lake, you need to pack one through the slush on the day before a below zero night. Flush the slush to the surface and let the frosty cold do the rest.

As a kid I would take my Polaris Colt 175cc snowmobile out in the bay by the Longbranch on Fall Lake and search out the slush. With a cleated track and slides I could spin up a mess and make some nice rooster tails.

If you've ever seen a kid play in a mud puddle, substitute the slush for mud and you'll get the idea. The big difference is when you were done playing your clothes were soaking wet, but not too dirty.

But when the snowmobile met its match, you were in for a long afternoon. If you were lucky, after much pushing and pulling you got the sled out of the slush and headed home for hot chocolate.

There would also be those times when you put logs under the sled and came back the next day when everything had frozen over.

Today's snowmobiles, with bigger engines and better floatation, seem to handle the slush better than the vintage sleds of yesteryear but you can still end up stuck in the slush.

Skiing in slush was just no fun at all. Those delicious trout that can be found off the beaten path north of Moose Lake seemed to lose their appeal when your skiis were turned into long ice cakes.

And using your ski poles never seemed to work too well as you tried to keep from stabbing your hand that was holding onto the ski.

I can't even imagine how much fun it would be to see your snowshoes disappear in the slush. Ice fishing in slush was a challenge as well, and rubber boots ruled the day. Once your feet were wet your day of fishing was over. Period.

But if you live up north in Ely, Minnesota then you find a way to recreate in a winter with this much snow and not as much as ice as we should have.

And after the last stretch of winters without enough snow much of the time, this really appears to be the good old days so far.

So ignore those who say their snowblowers have reached their limit already and get out and enjoy the wonderful winter Mother Nature has blessed us with already.

[greatoutdoors]

Lee,

I can tell you for a fact that Nick is right on the money when he is describing these conditions.

The foot we got a week ago on Sunday has now turned into about 16 inches with the periodic inch or so we keep getting.

Gonna be one interesting Trout opener on Burntside!!