The One Bracketed By Snow Storms

Last week saw the first pitch in the opening inning of Winter. There have been a few pre-season events in the preceding weeks, but nothing close to the real Winter that sledded over the area in the past days. The lake is still open, but that will change soon.

The week began with a 7+ inch storm that had the shores covered and the plows out.

The week ended with a storm that dumped over 6 inches onto the ground with another 3 or 4 inches adding to the totals after sunset on Sunday.

There was some wind, too. The snow blowing off the pines made for some surprisingly impressive drifts

The condition of Knott Lane was as expected: Icky. It's expected to remain icky for the next month or four.

Fortunately for those that like to get their 10,000 steps a day, just up the road from Lucerne there's the Forest County Potawatomi Community Center. The track in the field house is ice free and the air is around 65°F.

I can't say enough about the facility. The pool and hot tub will be great to thaw limbs after a day of downhill runs or fort building. The fake grass field is great for running around like a lunatic. The weight room has some really high tech machines to keep all the residents up here in Summer shape all year long. That, plus basket ball, volley ball, and pickle ball courts.

Overhead, really big eagles floated around the North end of the lake.

On the ground, Thanksgiving refugees tracked up lawns and drives.

The temperatures went above freezing mid-week, much of the snow on the shore melted.

The lake temperature dropped below 36°F. Ice is coming soon.

There were one or two really nice (and really early) sunsets.

On Saturday the lake was mostly ice free. On Sunday, large floats of ice with snow topping choked the North end of the lake making swimming difficult and skiing impossible. Then it got windy. As long as the breeze stays strong, the lake will remain open, but as soon as we get some calm, it'll ice over. And that's great. With the 31st Annual Lake Lucerne Bottle Rocket War just 48 days and 9 hours away, we could use a little lake ice.

-Nemo has a lot of shoveling ahead of him.

The One Bracketed By Snow Storms

November 29th through December 5th, 2021