Spider Holes and Wet Doggy Toes

Pictures from this mornings ski on Bowron Lake.... 

Dick and Charley inspecting a spider hole. This hole was allot bigger then we expected. It was the grey patch underneath Dicks ski that attracted our attention only to find that there was more 'hole' off to the side (which was invisible under the 2 cm of fresh snow). This hole went right through all the ice layers into the lake water.

A spider hole as seen while we first approach it . Notice the refrozen skiff of ice on top and the funnel shaped mouth below. The real dark spot just to the bottom left of the funnel mouth was Charleys warm nose on the ice.

Dick breaking through the top skim of ice, which is only about 2 cm thick... again this hole went right through all the layers of ice... and it was also big enough for a boot (with the attached leg ) to fall right through.... luckily I don't think the body would fit! 

This picture shows that our ski poles are still occasionally breaking through the top crust of snow into the water / slush layer underneath (which sits on top of the main ice layer). Our skis are not cutting through......

  

But Charleys feet are... and he is only a 60 pound dog.

Another, small spider hole. Even though the top of the funnel is large, the bottom opening is small. If your boot fell through, you would get wet but at least your leg wouldn't  go all the way through.

To find a spider hole, just look for round grayish spots on the surface of the lake. They are really quite fascinating. They are called spider holes because in the milder temperatures, when they are first formed, they can have rivulets of melt water draining from the ice surface down into the holes, forming wet tentacles around the hole, resembling a spider with outstretched legs. These holes are about one week old and are now well on their way to refreezing and the tentacles from a few days ago are covered with snow.

To show just how slushy the lake was, these snowmobile tracks are from last weekends visitors. Looks like the under-track threw up quite a rooster tail of slush and water as it cut through the soft layers of ice cover. Athough the top layer of the lake is slowly re-solidifying...  it still a bit slushy here and there.