Thanks to the deep freeze and much less snow than predicted, there was significant ice growth the past several days. For that reason, we will be open at 10 am tomorrow, Tuesday 1/16! Through Friday, we will be here from 10 am to 5 pm. We’ll update our weekend hours later in the week.
Today, Monday 1/15, we took our first major ice walk of the winter. Avery started in front of the marina out to the walleye hole/hump that is between the marinas, then headed to Waconia Bay and out towards Center Reef. After a break, he went out from the Wagener’s Bay Access past Harm’s Point towards Center Reef, then back to Pillsbury Reef and into the deep hole of the Wagener’s Bay before heading back to the access.
Ice thicknesses vary everywhere you go depending on where snow drifted or where the wind blew the ice clear of snow. To easily sum it up, that means we found as little as 3 to 4 inches under heavy snow drifts and as much as 8 inches where it was clear of snow. There were some areas with as much as 9 inches of ice found, but that was where snow got saturated near a crack and refroze creating slush ice.
Overall, a common ice measurement today was 5 to 7 inches. However, with as little as 3 to 4 inches (3 inches being quite rare) of ice still scattered on the lake, we won’t be recommending anything but walking at this time. Hopefully the continued cold nighttime temps help those minimum thicknesses grow so we can update soon that we will allow ATV usage through our access! Speaking of our access, due to the late start, our Winter Season Pass (which is good for walking from our access and when we are able to allow it, ATV, Snowmobile and car/truck use) is discounted to $25 this season. Otherwise, daily fees are $2 to walk on each day. Once we are comfortable opening the access up to them, the daily rate for ATV’s, snowmobiles and cars/trucks is $3 Monday through Thursday and $5 per day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
