Loose Endings

March 29th through April 4th, 2021

Lake Lucerne
Last week started off just as you would expect of the end of March. The lake was mostly ice covered with a few fringes of open water. The air was above freezing during the day, below at night. Maple syrup season was peaking.
Lake Lucerne
The sap ran hard most of the week.
Lake Lucerne
The buckets on the maples were filled much of the week.
Lake Lucerne
This resulted in collected sap backing up
Lake Lucerne
A mid-week cold snap transformed uncollected, full buckets into cold and hard to pour "Wisconsin Coconuts"
Lake Lucerne
Harvesting these juice filled balls of ice starts with smacking a pour hole and an air hole through the icy "husk".
Lake Lucerne
A little tipping is then applied to get the contents of the nut to stream into collecting buckets.
Lake Lucerne
The empty bucket and husk is then put back onto the tree.
Lake Lucerne
The cookers were fired hard all week. With the second one burning up, it was confirmed that wood is not a good material for a fire door handle.
Lake Lucerne
Eventually there were a few good old fashioned syrupings.
Lake Lucerne
All around the lake, nature is starting to wake up and raid the bird feeders.
Lake Lucerne
After the cold passed, the lake began to deteriorate fast. The area around the Islands was ice free by sunset on April 1st.
Lake Lucerne
The first swimmers of the year were spotted floating around in the growing patches of open water.
Lake Lucerne
The first boaters hit the lake, too.
Lake Lucerne
The sun and warm that politely greeted Lucerne on Holy Saturday hurt the ice even more.
Lake Lucerne
By sunset on Easter Sunday, Wabikon and Riley had their ice-outs.
Lake Lucerne
Metonga was one patch of ice away from frozen free.
Lake Lucerne
Lake Lucerne had a bit more ice around mid-lake. One more warm day or a strong wind will rid the lake of its Winter coat. In addition to the last vestiges of Winter melting away, tapping season seems to be coming to an end. As the trees stop dripping and start budding, it's time to start planning pier placement and raft location. The first lake level measurement of the year has found Lake Lucerne is down an inch from the end of last year if that helps.


-Nemo maintains the lake is currently a bit too refreshing to swim in.