[MAXUM]

Well made it out to my camp on the NE side of Bear Island today... the LONG way. FYI for anyone looking to hop on the ice from sheps forget about it. The access point next to the docks is all blocked off and clearly they do not want anyone accessing the ice from there. Furthermore there is a some open water that stretches across beyond the docks so access isn't possible anyways.

OK so with that out and I had my sleds with me decided that the next best option was Levitt Beach. When we got there there were a bunch of folks out fishing and ice reports were the ice was only 6" thick. When we drilled a test hole by the beach it was over 12" so I'm not sure how accurate that report was. I was a bit surprised at that but decided to leave the sleds and walk from there to BI with the ice auger to drill test holes along the way. Our path took us between the mainland and the beaver islands, between Pine and 3 Mile then across to Bear. We drilled several test holes along the way. Far as the ice goes... that area had been locked up well prior to the cold snap out to Pine and 3 mile islands where the ice went from snow covered to bare ice and not just that really cool ice formations where you could see the large sheets with huge gaps of black ice that had flash froze so good some of the black ice was creepy to walk across because there were NO air bubbles at all in it. OK now for what everyone I'm sure is interested in knowing, thickness. We found the ice to be mostly to be between 10 and 12" thick, yes we measured it. Only in one spot did we find the ice to be down to 7" and it was an area where there was probably open water not that long ago as it was black and between two pressure points so it was drilled as we wanted to make darn sure we had plenty of ice under us where we couldn't determine thickness from either cracks or air bubbles. Could have easily taken the sleds out, but we played it safe and walked out cause we were the only ones out there at least on the way out. Bottom line the ice may look bad, but it's solid, safe and really hard at least along our path.

Great to be out at the camp, walked in and it was a balmy 13 degrees inside! Very cold day today and the wind was whipping real good on the way back. Long walk, got plenty of exercise. Pics to follow. Beautiful day for sure!

First pic, Beaver island on the right looking towards Pine
Second pic, looking directly at 3 mile island with Pine behind the picture taker
Third pic, looking towards the broads point of Pine on the right and Bear Island behind Pine. Great place to skate there, no snow and the ice was perfectly smooth