driving on Winni

[Jimmie's Dad]

So here I was on Route 11 with my new powerful binoculars scanning the ice. What do I see? A very large pickup truck driving through the Broads. You can not tell me it is safe out in the middle of the lake. I would not even walk out that far. Makes me wonder if anything is at the bottom.

[madrasahs]

I don't know about that.

The oldtimers used to move barns across The Broads -- using teams of oxen. They even plowed a "highway" across there for regular use by citizens' autos, trucks, and sleighs.

Our lakefront property had about a dozen "double-breadbox-sized" boulders delivered one winter on the ice. (Old NH farmer's lichen-covered stone wall -- removed for development).

They've mostly been washed into the lake now (shoreline erosion), but a dump truck delivered them -- over the ice.

[Hazelnut]

My parents used to have a house in the Kona area directly across from Windward Harbor. We used to swim all around that area and we saw what looked like railroad tracks on the bottom of the lake. Someone (I can't remember who) told me that they used to harvest ice for refrigeration with a rail like system in the cove. Help me out with this one if anyone knows more about it.

[John]

You drove on route 11, well the ice is about five or six times as thick on the broads as the tar is on the road. Hopefully though if the tar lets go the sink hole that could be there would not be as deep.

If you could go back a few years not many I think you will find that Winnipesaukee diver was talking about finding a logging truck intact down there.

[Vision2000]

Please post the farthest that you have driven in any vehicle on the lake this winter! What type of vehicle, and from where to where? I am curious to see what is the longest distance that anyone has safely driven.

We drove from Robert's Cove Road to Rattlesnake Island last weekend... anyone here gone further than that?

[spotsink]

We drove from the Tuftonboro Town beach (near Pier 19) out to Little Bear Island on the 8th. It is only about 2 miles as the crow flies but it was a neat ride and we enjoyed our day on the island. Oh yes, GMC Suburban.

[ITD]

We drove two snowmoblies across the lake from Center Harbor to the Winterfest in Alton Bay and back to Center Harbor last Sunday Feb 15th. Trip took less than 45 minutes each way. It was cold but we were dressed for it. The odometer on the sled showed 21 miles one way. Didn't see any huge pressure ridges, just 1 to 3 foot "bumps" along the way. Saw lots of ice fishing shacks and a few small campers. Saw one camper that was about 20 feet long with a nice ice skating rink shovelled out next to it toward Patrician Shores. Also saw a Vee tail Bonanza flying 100 to 200 feet off the ice on the way back. Neat site, we had seen the plane parked on the ice before we left.

[madrasahs]

Can't help with the rail question specifically, but I know that pure lake ice was cut and hauled out of the lake.

Camp Wyanoke stored lake ice in a shaded wooden hut about the size of a one-car garage. The blocks were covered with heavy canvas and sawdust to promote evaporative cooling in the summer. (Sometimes beverages had little bits of sawdust mixed in with the irregular chunks of ice in the glasses).

Horses were used to haul the big blocks of ice up the steep hill in the winter months.

I think it was sawdust.

[mooseriver man]

Have been from Shep Brown's Boat Basin to Center Harbor and back again but on two different days. 4 miles each way. Dodge Dakota 4x4.

Saw lots of other vehicles. Each workday morning for about two weeks have seen a pickup truck and a regular truck head out from Shep Brown's to the narrow section on Bear Island and of course back again.

[John]

We had an area of the cottage that they used to store Ice cut from the lake for the summer. But that was before my time, and I am thankful for that.