Just one day after my last post, on April 16th, 2010, the large ice floe at the south end of the lake, which didn't look so large when it finally appeared around the point, floated into the north end of Bowron Lake. The winds pushed and ground it against the northwest shore of the lake where it slowly disintegrated, and by 5pm the lake was ice free! We even jumped into the boat (the next morning) to make sure. So 'my' proclaimed ice off date is entered in my record books as April 16th, 2010. How does this relate to the records I have? It's a bit earlier then the mean average which works out to be May 1st. (This comes from 47 entries recorded by various people between the years of 1932 and 2010 (78 years), so there is a lot missing here.) For the record the earliest ice off event for Bowron Lake (that I have) occured on April 2, 1991, and the latest ice off event occured May 20, 2008.
To date (April 20, 2010) Bowron Lake is ice free, Kibbee is nearly ice free (still a bit along the edges), Spectacle still has lots of ice on it, Indianpoint and beyond have not been checked but are most probably still frozen. Isaac Lake traditionally clears off 2 weeks after Bowron Lake, so that brings us to the 30th of April. At this point the park personnel (and I) expect that the Lakes will all be clear in plenty of time for the Parks opening on May 15, 2010.
Lots of birds are back; robins, blackbirds, mergansers, canadian geese, eagles, plovers. The ravens are nesting, the starlings are ripping out the wire and nesting under our eves... AGAIN!! and the mosquitos have appeared! (yes I can enter them under birds because they are certainly big enough!) We have seen a few moose on the road, otters and beavers are in the river and squirrels are running rampant everywhere. No bear sitings yet. The water has only risen slightly, 5 cm in the last week (measured at the Bowron River Bridge), but there is still lots of snow in the mountains yet to melt. Tourists and strange cars are beginning to appear driving up and down the road... spring has sprung in the Bowron!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Ice off -- ice on
I know the locals got all excited when on March 29, 2010, during the night of the big wind storm, the ice started to break-up. Then after three days of wind there was hardly any ice left on the north end of Bowron Lake. Many were touting the earliest Bowron Lake ice-off date in history!! BUT... despite the clear blue waves on the lake... it is not offically ice-off yet!
If you read the IceWatch Canada website, offical ice off is when a lake reaches the B4 stage --'completely ice free'. Although Bowron Lake 'looks' ice free when you gaze at it from the north shores... there is still a large free floating ice floe hiding around the point in the bay at the south end. Therefore Bowron Lake is at this date, April 15th, 2010, still considered at the B3 stage... 'ice in movement'. This is the first year that I know of (during my record taking years) that this has happened. Usually at break-up all the ice moves north with the currents and winds, ending up in the northern bays before clogging the river. This little ice floe, approx. 70 acres in size, seems to have hooked itself behind the point and is 'stuck' in the south bay of Bowron Lake.
All pictures taken on April 14, 2010. This picture is of the mountains around the back side of the ice floe.
Yesterday (April 14), Dick and I took the motor boat out to get pictures of it. As we motored by, the edges of the ice undulated with the wake of the boat, but didn't really break up. It only broke up when we tried to 'cut' the boat through a narrow section of the floe. We found the ice to be about 3 to 4 inches thick. On April 13, the ice floe closed in behind some local fisherman who had gone around it to the far end of the lake, and they reported having to get up onto the floe and drag their 12 ft aluminum over a section of the floe to get out. We didn't try this... I'm not that anxious to test the ice!
For the record -- the earliest ice-off date I've recorded occured on April 2, 1992, when over night, a big wind storm took all the lake ice and jammed it solid into the river. Before that, in 1941, the recorded 'opened' date is entered as April 5th. Being that I wasn't here during that year (ha, ha)... I don't know if 'opened' is an offical ice-off term or if they experienced conditions like we are having today.
If you read the IceWatch Canada website, offical ice off is when a lake reaches the B4 stage --'completely ice free'. Although Bowron Lake 'looks' ice free when you gaze at it from the north shores... there is still a large free floating ice floe hiding around the point in the bay at the south end. Therefore Bowron Lake is at this date, April 15th, 2010, still considered at the B3 stage... 'ice in movement'. This is the first year that I know of (during my record taking years) that this has happened. Usually at break-up all the ice moves north with the currents and winds, ending up in the northern bays before clogging the river. This little ice floe, approx. 70 acres in size, seems to have hooked itself behind the point and is 'stuck' in the south bay of Bowron Lake.
All pictures taken on April 14, 2010. This picture is of the mountains around the back side of the ice floe.
Yesterday (April 14), Dick and I took the motor boat out to get pictures of it. As we motored by, the edges of the ice undulated with the wake of the boat, but didn't really break up. It only broke up when we tried to 'cut' the boat through a narrow section of the floe. We found the ice to be about 3 to 4 inches thick. On April 13, the ice floe closed in behind some local fisherman who had gone around it to the far end of the lake, and they reported having to get up onto the floe and drag their 12 ft aluminum over a section of the floe to get out. We didn't try this... I'm not that anxious to test the ice!
For the record -- the earliest ice-off date I've recorded occured on April 2, 1992, when over night, a big wind storm took all the lake ice and jammed it solid into the river. Before that, in 1941, the recorded 'opened' date is entered as April 5th. Being that I wasn't here during that year (ha, ha)... I don't know if 'opened' is an offical ice-off term or if they experienced conditions like we are having today.
Playing Catch-up!
Nicola, a 2010 winter visitor at Bowron Lake, e-mailed me some time ago to find out how fellow winter enthusiasts, Steve and his group, did during their icy ski around the chain. I had hoped that one of Steve's group would send me a report, but to-date none has arrived so I confess that I must play catch-up without them. From memory then... Steve's group which consisted of four men and two dogs -- sort of 'skiied' -- the chain during our exceptionally strange 2010 winter. They left on Feb. 27th, 2010 and were welcomed to Bowron Lake with the seasons first 'downpour'... down right blasphemy in February!! Luckily it hit just as they reached a cabin. They returned 8 days later after completing the full circuit. They reported wonderful winter conditions despite the shortage of snow!? They found bare ice most of the way, only part of Isaac Lake had an actual thin layer of snow where they could kick and glide. They ended up double poling pretty near the whole way and reported ending with arms as big as apes and thigh muscles strained from trying to keep their skiis together. The trails, they said, were bare most of the way, which necessitated pulling their sleds over gravel.
The rivers were open and open leads of water greeted them at McLeary Lake where the Cariboo River joins in. They had to 'beat their way thro the bush' for most of the river. They reported at least 12 inches of ice on most lakes, and thin ice shelves along the edges of the rivers. They heard wolves and saw Ravens on Sandy Lake, a good indication of a 'kill' nearby. The ice 'talked' on most of the West Side, but Bowron Lake by far, took the cake with it's cracking and rumbling, this would be because they came home on a beautiful sunny day and the ice loves to snap and move when the sun hits it! Only one of the four had skins on his skiis which he said helped him even on the smooth ice. All had good backcountry ski gear with sturdy covered polks (sleds). Even the dogs, who carried small packs with their dog food, were frisking and happy on their return.
OK guys... now that I have written this up in such a public place ;-P send that report so I can see how 'correct' my memory is!!
The rivers were open and open leads of water greeted them at McLeary Lake where the Cariboo River joins in. They had to 'beat their way thro the bush' for most of the river. They reported at least 12 inches of ice on most lakes, and thin ice shelves along the edges of the rivers. They heard wolves and saw Ravens on Sandy Lake, a good indication of a 'kill' nearby. The ice 'talked' on most of the West Side, but Bowron Lake by far, took the cake with it's cracking and rumbling, this would be because they came home on a beautiful sunny day and the ice loves to snap and move when the sun hits it! Only one of the four had skins on his skiis which he said helped him even on the smooth ice. All had good backcountry ski gear with sturdy covered polks (sleds). Even the dogs, who carried small packs with their dog food, were frisking and happy on their return.
OK guys... now that I have written this up in such a public place ;-P send that report so I can see how 'correct' my memory is!!
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