Good Morning from Bear Island!

[MAXUM]

~30 degrees overnight, light snow fell yesterday putting a couple inches of fluff on the ground. This morning sunrise was incredible, the wind has picked up and the temps are starting to drop. Absolutely no better place to be!

For those wondering, there is about 12" of ice on the lake and I've seen a few sleds and ATV's out there bombing around. Be VERY careful of the pressure ridges out there and the usual spots that are never safe.

This morning's sunrise and a huge ice buckle along shore, that's thrust more than 7 feet up. Pretty crazy.

[Descant]

Great pix. Thank you. Which side of the island are you on? Transportation by snowmobile or are you close enough to walk??

[MAXUM]

North end, facing N/NE. Went out by sled.

[Winopt]

If we get a dumping of snow, a pressure ridge will be very tough to see. Did you see any you can tell us about?

[Pine Island Guy]

Great pics MAXUM!

we were on Pine for the weekend, but had to leave early Sunday morning to head back... went by ATV from Braun Bay over, and there is an ice ridge running from the north end of Bear all the way over to Three Mile... and the usual one from the Bear PO to Pine isn't there this year...

Other than the ridge, the ice is thick and very smooth, and the wind Sunday cleared off a lot of the snow... an ice-boat would have been flying!

Because of the cold temps, the ice-eaters along the shore on thermostats have been running overtime and a lot of the shoreline is open water, be careful!

Snow snow snow tomorrow -PIG

[MAXUM]

If we get a dumping of snow, a pressure ridge will be very tough to see. Did you see any you can tell us about?

PIG - I took a ride by your place on Sunday mid morning but saw no evidence of anyone being there so continued on. Next time... probably this weekend as I'll want to clear all that snow off the roof of my camp.

Winopt - So there is a really bad pressure ridge as PIG explained going from the northern tip of Bear all the way out to 3 mile. There is also one that is about 1/2 way down Bear that cuts across just north of 5 mile off into the distance beyond where I could see but no doubt to the far shore. I didn't do any tooling around on the lake since I was out there solo and wasn't about to take any chances. You are correct though if as much snow falls as what is being forecast some of these ridges could get hidden and be a very bad hazard to anyone riding on the lake. I suspect that they will produce a drift if the snow blows around as expected but my advice would be to use due caution when riding a vertical 12" block of ice will not be a good thing to find at a high rate of speed. I hate to say it but it won't surprise me to hear somebody found one the hard way, especially with all the riders running around at night.

Also - those nice new white covers on all the lighted bouys are going to be tough to pick out from the snow covered ice. Watch out for those as well.

Be careful out there riders, as much fun as it is to let loose on the lake, there will be buried hazards.