A Pretty Snowy Week

January 29th through February 4th
Lake Lucerne boarded the Alberta Clipper last week and the ride did not disappoint. The area needed some snow. The predicted 1-3 inches shot to 5 and the snowmobile types were happy. In between the flake-a-lanche, the knottlane drone made wee holes in the sky over Lake Lucerne and Crandon. The view of the lake from the Northwest corner of Crandon was photobombed by the rather rubenesque Lake Metonga. A closer look at Metonga reveals a lake suffering from a chronic case of the shanty pox. This unsightly walleye and perch induced rash should clear up by late March. There are a few snow-go scars on Lucerne, but a lack of fish has blessed the lake with an immunity to shanty pox. The islands, and the somewhat illegal, but very cool, "Slalomer's Slot" between 'em. They're pretty far away in this picture, but Lakes Wabikon and Riley seem to have plenty of shanty pox free ice. Toward the end of last week, there was a flock of eagles over Lucerne's islands looking for a tasty meal. Tasty meals spent much of the week hiding in the shadows to avoid becoming the latest flavor of eagle chow. Weeks of neglect have left this year's Bottle Rocket War forts in a state of near ruin. Restoration efforts are planned to be completed by Saturday, January 26th, 2019. Every road that is not a state highway has some degree of snow/ice cover. Speeding into the curves is not recommended. Our last task of the week was to drill a hole in the lake to check the ice thickness. It took more time than expected. Huzzah! The lake is currently covered by 22.5 inches of very hard ice. Another January is in the books...no wait. Wrong picture. There, that's better. Another January is in the books. It's at this point that we stop berating the snow birds for their lack of hardiness and begin acknowledging their wisdom. It looks like we'll have one more week of sub-zero-ness before Thaw begins. That, combined with a few more snow-thaw-freeze cycles and we'll be pushing a yard of ice by month's end.<br><br>-Nemo, pricing extenders for the ice auger.