Yes, it's official. I just spoke with my father up on Canoe Lake and the ice is essentially out now (1:30 PM), and there will only be some large rafts of slushy ice left by dusk today.
The lake was almost entirely covered with loose, chunky ice at nightfall last night, and even to a certain extent early this morning. But there has been some wind and the main body of it has been moving around the lake, and breaking up all morning. As of about noon most of the north end, and more then half of the south end were open, and there was a large mass of ice and slush being blown against the east shore and into the Portage Store bay. Boats were spotted moving around inside the P-Store bay, but it isn't clear how easy it would be to get through the barrier and out into the lake.
Congratulations to everyone who picked today, Friday 25 April, and especially to Jason Stark who was the first in line. Jason emailed me on March 25th to pick today:
Good morning, I'd like to submit for April 25th. Keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for the great website I have been checking it for the last 5 or so years as we trip every year for either opening week or 1st week of May. We appreciate your updates and time spent.
Have a great trip Jason!
Condolences to my good friend Scott Murray who was first in line for yesterday and who would have been a three-time winner had the ice gone out just 12 hours earlier!
And thanks to everyone (155 people!) who submitted a date this year—it's been the biggest year yet for Canoe Lake Ice-out.
There will be a few more posts—hopefully with some photos from today—so keep checking in now and again. And if there is any news throughout the year I'll send a message to the mailing list, so sign up over there on the right if you haven't already.
Happy ice-out everyone!
