Bottle Rocket War Week

Last week, Bottle Rocket War week, started off mild with a cloudy sky and an unseasonably thin blanket of snow covering the lake. We would have liked more of the white stuff for forts, but it would have to do.

The snow may have been light, but there was also plenty of hoarfrost most mornings.

There were also many wild turkeys skittering about the North end of the lake..

Fort building was a steady process all week. Much of the snow for the walls was carted in from up to 50 feet away.

On Friday morning we were blessed with about 2 inches of snow with another inch or so coming later in the day. Fort building would be easier.

The walls of the southern fort were finished before the sun set on Friday. New features this year included a security corridor and better corners.

The Northern fort's walls started to go up a short time later.

Just after noon on Saturday, the north's fort had just a few walls to go.

The foundational elements of the north's fort were straight and level but, perhaps due to the hurried nature of the work, many of the finishing touches were not quite square.

By Saturday afternoon, the frippery and furbelows were finished on the southern fort.

Of special note this year was the blue "Orb of Justice" with icicle spikes that was placed in the center of the south's main wall.

In addition to a security corridor and the blue "Orb of Justice", the south's fort had two polycarbonate windows, three 3" krispa class launchers, one 1" krispa class launcher, and an anti-skip shot knee wall.

The finished northern fort boasted two 4" krispa class launchers, walls, and a remounted polycarbonate window.

Before sunset, stands were set up on the shoreline to accommodate the thousands of expected spectators. There was also hot chocolate and a few glow sticks.

At about 7:05 PM the leaders of the southern fort telegraphed the troopers occupying the northern fort to ask if they were ready. "We are always ready", was the reply. The south acknowledged the response with the first barrage of the evening.

The North responded in kind.

Echos of color and reports echoed off the hills for about half an hour.

In all, about 3,000 bottle rockets were fired.

The good people at Uncle Sam Fireworks, the official rocket supplier of the Lake Lucerne Bottle Rocket War, included one "Saturn Missile Battery" with our order. The South gave it to the North. BIG MISTAKE! was one of our passing thoughts as 300 shots screamed towards the southern fort all seemingly at once.

The smooth, snowless area between the forts favored lower "skip shots". So accurate were these rockets, that the knee wall in front of the southern fort actually caught fire around mid-war.

The great stick pickup started early Sunday with some stragglers nursing hangovers showing up later in the day.

Many of the sticks were picked up by the time we arrived. The damage that the North's war wall sustained was astonishing.

Given the snow-ice nature of the war wall, we were amazed at the number of "stickers" embedded in the barrier.

The damage to the Southern fort was testimony to the improved gunnery of the North.

The south also had its share of "stickers".

In unrelated to the Bottle Rocket War news, local roads are plowed, but covered in packed snow-ice. Getting up the hill on the North end of the lake can be a close thing.

One of the best bottle rocket wars ever. Special thanks to Victoria W. and Mark G. (if you did not get enough bottle rocket war images, Mark has some additional great ones here including a short movie.) for their excellent wartime pictures. With the Annual Lake Lucerne Bottle Rocket War over, all that remains of the season is ice fishing, tapping, and watching the "Orb of Justice" paint the melting wall under it with blue food coloring. And the annual Ice-Out contest. We'll get a link up in a few weeks and an ice thickness check before then.

-Nemo should have stuck to hot chocolate.

Bottle Rocket War Week

January 11th through 17th, 2021