Lake Ice Conditions: May 13, 2014

Current Ice Conditions:  Pilots were unable to fly today. As you venture out into newly opened water, remember the gasp reflex. No matter how well you can swim, please WEAR yourlifejacket!

West Side:

• Basswood: Jackfish, Hoist, Wind, and Back Bays all appear open. Bailey Bay is not open but likely to change in the next few days. Moose Chain to Prairie all open.
• Burntside: east and west arms open, ice in channel and some in North Arm.
• White Iron, Bear Island, and Shagawa are open.
• Snowbank and east of Alice Lake are mostly still full of ice. Shallower bays in Snowbank are opening.
• Rivers are mostly open and lakes (except for a few large ones) are mostly open from Snowbank going west.
• Up the Echo Trail: Jeanette L. and Big L. are open.

East Side:

• Outside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Crescent, Fourmile, Toohey, and Lichen are open.
• Mid- Trail is still socked with ice, like West Bearskin still pretty iced over --pretty slim chance of it opening by the weekend.
• Gunflint Lake the on the west side of the Gunflint trail its open up to Magnetic Lake but there is still ice on the shores.
• Round Lake Open
• Missing Link Lake open
• Gillis open
• The channel into Sag open – but can see ice beyond
• Seagull is open
• Ham Lake open- Cross River and Cross Lake- open
• Probably nothing open yet in the Vento area (Daniels, Duncan)
• Kawishiwi and Isabella Lakes are open. Parent Lake is probably open.

This report will be linked to the ice conditions alert on the Superior National Forest website:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/superior

Ice Condition Report - May 14, 2013

Superior National Forest Ice Update

Tuesday PM, May 14, 2013

A strong crosswind grounded the fire patrol this afternoon. New information from observers:

Generally the smaller lakes in the south east are open or mostly open. Larger lakes are still frozen.

• Disappointment is open.
• Parent Lake (near Snowbank) is iced. Snowbank is still iced in.
• Rice and August Lake are open.
• Vermilion Lake was iced in yesterday.
• Big Lake was reported open yesterday, but southerly winds pushed the ice pack to the northern half today.
• The North Arm of Burntside is still frozen. The East Arm is full of dark ice.
This information is from Monday’s flight:
• Moose Lake: southwestern third is open; northeastern two thirds frozen but dark ice.
• S. Kawishiwi R. and Gabbro Lake are mostly open.
• Turtle is open.
• There is ice in the middle of Bald Eagle.
• Clearwater and Pietro are frozen (thin ice) but Gull is open.
• Quadga and Bog are open.
• Isabella and Perent still have a lot of ice in the middle.
• Polly and Phoebe are open.
• Alton and Sawbill are still frozen.
• Alice is frozen.
• Insula south of The Rock is open, the northern portion is frozen.
• Lake 3 is mostly open.
• Knife Lake including the South Arm is mostly ice.
• Saganaga is still frozen.
FS Pilot report—this information is from a flight late Sunday afternoon.
• Jackfish- 40% open
• Open: Pipestone, Stuart, Agnes, Nina Moose, Ramshead, Upper and Lower Pauness
• Frozen: Oyster
• Bald Eagle- 60% open
• Gabbro- 75% open
• Open: Gull, Turtle, Lakes 1 and 2
• Clearwater- frozen, but open around the edges.

Today’s safety message: 
Bears are awake and hungry. Keep a clean camp.
Winds are drying fine fuels quickly. Be careful with fire.
Give yourself a fighting chance. Wear your PFD.