Ice Report 1-30-11
 

Went out from the Glendale town docks out to my camp on Welch yesterday cutting holes and checking ice as I went out.

In front of the town docks there is a solid 7" of black ice with about 4 " of lousy slushy ice on top. As I headed out out of the cove towards Welch, the good black ice actually got thicker. There is approximately 8- 10 inches of solid black ice with 4" of very hard crusty upper layer of white ice. There are slush spots everywhere when you get near shore and you will get stuck with either a snowmobile or any wheeled ATV if you hit one of these.

There are snowmobiles everywhere on the lake. As a matter of fact we had friends meet us at Welch who came from Alton Bay with no problems. Just be careful near shore for the slush spots.

I was able to pull out my bob house with no issues with my Polaris Ranger which has tracks. I could not have done this with any other ATV or snowmobile due to the slush spots you will encounter.

Please do your own ice checking if you venture out as ice conditions vary greatly around the lake. This is only to give you an idea of what I encountered.

It's been absolutely gorgeous out here on the ice the past couple days!!

Be safe and enjoy the winter sports!!

Dan

Couple Pics
 

Here's a couple pics showing the slush I encountered directly in front of my camp. The good news is that it pretty much froze up solid last night.

The other pic is simply our home one the ice! :)

Dan

Nice shots. Thanks. How has the fishing been?

Nice meeting you today Dan, remember that open invite this summer.

Dan, is it ice fishing or ice drinking?

Secondcurve; The fishing has not been too bad, Considering we never finished setting up and actually started fishing until 9:30 Saturday. This was a little late and I feel well after the bite. Caught 5 small lakers and 3 cusk.

Topwater; Pleasure meeting you as well! I may take you up on your offer this spring!

Winnisquamguy; It's "ice fishing" for me! Plenty of time for cold beer at the end of the day at the camp when all the toys have been put away!

Dan

Conditions don't really look that bad. For sleds it looks fine. Does not look like a truck would make it through that stuff unless it's completly frozen. You said the slush froze last night? Was that just that spot or did it seem like the slush was all frozen/a thing of the past? We've been wanting to use the truck to get gear out there this coming weekend. We've been debating on what to do since it's been so bad. But if it's all frozen a truck should do fine. Not sure about after this storm though.

No way would I take a truck out there!! Snowmobile would be your best bet. Once your out away from shore everything is fine. I would think all the main trails from the shore would be frozen without slush now, staying on those would be your best bet. An ATV would probably be O.K. if it does not snow too much in the next day or two, but it's not looking that way right now!!

Good Luck!

Dan

Ice report update?
 

Last Saturday the slush in Braun Bay over to access trails was fairly deep and required alot of speed to make it through, but by Sunday much of the slush had frozen over the snowmobile tracks, creating hard, rutty conditions. Conditions were still slushy between untracked snow and ice layer, however.

Could someone kindly update the ice conditions on Thursday or Friday following the 2-day storm? Will greatly appreciate that, as we will be back up this weekend to hit the trails.

Thanks and be safe out there on the ice!

I was out on Winnisquam last night, ran up the lake and saw no slush, just 2-5 inches of fresh powder on the frozen slush.

Sorry to derail this thread for a second here but I have a question for you magicrobotmonkey. Regarding Winnisquam I have always been a bit nervous to travel on that lake. Every time I drive by Winnisquam I see weird areas of open water where I would think ice should be. Especially near the Rodeway Inn side near the Islands it looks like all this open water in such a random spot. Can you give us an overall picture of Winnisquam and how the ice conditions are? Thanks so much for your report on the slush.

I found slush conditions to be worse in the bays as I had said. We went from Braun bay to Center Harbor and found nice hard flat surfaces. As a matter of fact over by Black Cat Island between there and Patrician Shores area the wind hd gotten to the snow and ice and made patches of hard flat ice and pockets of snow. Then we stopped into Blacky's Cove and found a ton of slush.

Anywhere there were large amounts of snowmobile track had set up really well for riding. You just need to find the "ice-highways." :D