Warmer Week

March 12th through 18th
Last week started off not as un-cold as we would have liked, but it did have its charm. Charms included plenty of sun, not so much wind, and a bit of melt. The bit of melt has pushed creeks, streams, and other inflows up to record levels. We've never seen them so full. The lake should continue to rise. There's still un-warm out there, but the melt reminded most that it's practically spring. Spring, when a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of, among other things, pancake topping. It may have been a sense of duty. Or it may have been some primal natural compulsion, but the sap cookers were cleaned and made all ready for the syruping season. The maples complied with our desires. The cold was not as compliant. The modest runs during the day paired with a few single digit nights filled the buckets with pucks of sap ice. Pucks of sap ice tend to not pour very well, making sap collection a bit less joyous. By week's end, the sap was more liquid-y and the collecting more joyous. The snow in the woods continues to be deep enough to effectively ban all non tracked vehicles. When all this white melts, the lake is going to be <b>way</b> higher. The cookers boiled the sap down all weekend with first syrup expected on Tuesday (BYOP). At the start of the week, the ice on the lake topped out at 28 inches thick (!) with the top 3 inches being a frozen ice/snow layer. By the weekend, the sun and 45℉ temperatures took almost 3 inches. Still, 25.5 inches thick is close to a half a foot thicker than is normal for this time of year. There was the hope that the warm weekend might have opened the water in places by the islands. A knottlane UTV was sent up to see if this was. There is a snow free runway in front of Water's Edge bar and eatery, but there is currently no open water on Lake Lucerne. We'll endeavor to more closely monitor the ice in a small effort help those that have yet to enter this year's ice-out contest. The current consensus is that the ice will not go out before next Sunday.<br><br>-Nemo prefers his sap in non-puck form