We have been curious about how thick the ice is on the reservoir out in front of our house. Lately we've been seeing lots of fishermen pretty far out on the ice. I've seen 4-wheelers driving around and families pulling sleds with all sorts of tents and gear. A few clues that the ice is fairly solid. I've also heard rumors of ice shacks on another portion of the reservoir and men who drive their pick ups out on the ice to get to their shacks. Who knew?
Saturday the kids and I drove 1/4 mile down the road to the boat launch and got out to explore.
This is the bottom of the boat launch. Normally the dock would be visible just behind the kids. It's now hidden under the ice.
That is the dam just behind that group.
Now I know that extremely pregnant ladies are pretty much advised to stay as far away from ice as they can...but it's not like I was strapping on skates or anything. It did feel a little sketchy holding one tiny hand in each of mine rather than sticking my arms out at my side for balance. Plus, I had a camera and two lenses bouncing off the front of me. We walked very slowly and with shuffling steps, don't worry. I was also a little scared about the ice breaking. You can see many cracks that have "healed" all over the place. "What if we're all a bunch of dumb sheep following the others' lead and taking it for granted that this is safe? How would I save my kids if the ice broke? The camera should be the least of my worries--but we couldn't afford to lose it" were the thoughts roaming through my mind. Obviously I wasn't worried enough to stay off the ice. We walked around and listened to everyone having fun.
A little boy was escorting his freezing cold brother back to their truck and informed us that they had just caught one. Another group with lawn chairs was grumbling about "nobody catching anything".
It was cold and windy. Caroline was the first to admit she was done, and I have to admit I was glad. Ezra wanted to stay there all day. I dragged him off with the promise that sometime soon we would dress more appropriately in all of our snow gear and he could go spend a longer period of time with Daddy on the ice.
Come visit us, Kiki and Debris and you can join Ezra on the ice!
6 comments:
I like that old (grain?) elevator poking out of the water. When I was a kid and the water was extremely low, Dad would take us down there so we could poke around in the old house foundations. BTW, the Spouse's favorite piece of pop culture involving ice fishing is "Grumpy Old Men."
This is Keira: Dear Ezra and Caroline, I would love to go on the ice with you! That would be so much fun! Thank you for the wonderful post and pictures! Happy New Year, Love, Kiki
This is Brie: We haven't been ice fishing yet, but I would love to go with you! We'll bring our camping chairs and head lamps and be right there soon. Love, Debris
This is actually Naomi :-): Thanks for the fun post! They thought it was so cool that you did a post for them. :-)
Wow, ice fishing! It must be really really cold! Btw, thanks for your comments on my blog! I finally found your blog address again so I have bookmarked it. Your kids are sure growing, and congratulations about your new little one coming soon!
Oh wow thanks for this post, maybe I WOULD like Aberdeen, you see THIS is the stuff that my childhood/young adulthood/old young adulthood ;) is made of :) I was JUST saying to people last week how homesick I was for snow on the ground outside of my house and my lake 10 minutes away to go skate on anytime and watch the ice fisherman(back in PA)...sigh...sooo jealous!!! I'm coming in March if they have the ski weekend but it probably won't be frozen still :( We used to take shovels with us and skate around the lake with them if it had snowed on top of the ice. the crack look in places usually isn't dangerous...the ice just has to be 4 inches thick. There is NOTHING like skating over a vast expanse carefree and especially when there's a slight wind to blow you along :) Okay I'm gonna stop thinking about it :D ~Cath
Brrrr! I never did understand ice fishing, but according to my dad, it's fun. :)
Oooh, I am so tempted to head over that way to go skating. Does the lake freeze completely across? For entertainment on the ice w/o skates, use a camping chair to push the kids on or sleds (of course, for Tad to do the pushing :-) ) The chair might not work so good though if the ice is bumpy. We did that in PDX this winter and Lauren loved it. Kelly, I thought of Grumpy Old Men too when looking at the pictures :)
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