A few pictures from today

You'll want snowshoes to pick out a rental canoe

Lake of Two Rivers from Hwy 60

There is a little open water on Smoke Lake

Your faithful blogger paddles the dock at Smoke Lake

Our blog makes the Insider Report

Thanks to the nice people at Ontario Parks for including a link to this blog in their recent Insider Report on Ice Out Canoe Trips!

If you are not on the "insider list," I highly recommend signing up. The reports include all kinds of interesting information about Ontario's wonderful provincial parks, as well as contests, camping tips, route suggestions and much more.

While I'm at it, thanks to all the faithful readers of this blog for paying attention to what I have to say. You know who you are. I checked the visitor statistics today and just about fell off my chair when I saw that this humble blog has had over 3000 visitors in the last month and a recent daily high of 164 visitors! I'd better get blogging. For some reason, people in Don Mills, Ontario, and State College, PA, really like this blog. Those two cities boast the highest AO blog visitation from Canada and the USA respectively. Who knew?

Beautiful weather up here but still lots of ice!

The weather has been spectacular lately. With all the sunny days, you'd think that the ice would be disappearing at a rapid rate. Unfortunately, at least for early season paddlers and spring anglers, this is not the case. Night-time temperatures are still well below freezing and the recent snow has made a nice reflective layer on top of the ice. Consequently, there has been much less ice-out progress than you would expect. 

Having said that, rivers have created big leads into some lakes so there is movement. What we really need now is some wind and rain to get things broken up. 

All this clear weather has made for some excellent satellite photos on the Coastwatch web site. Click the link and select the best looking recent thumbnail image (ie. the one with the least cloud cover). That will open in your browser window, putting you somewhere west of Thunder Bay. Scroll over and down until you recognize landforms like Manitoulin Island and the Bruce Peninsula. Scroll right (eastwards) from there and you should be able to recognize bigger Algonquin Park lakes such as Opeongo, Cedar and Lavielle. Notice how white and frozen they are! These images are updated daily so watch for progress. While you're at it, look at Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie and the crazy patterns in the water caused (I presume) by silt.

The Canoe Lake Ice-Out Contest page has some recent pictures of a very frozen-looking Canoe Lake and a link to an Algonquin Park page discussing the history of ice-out on Lake Opeongo. Algonquin Park staff have started their spring ice and road conditions report. This is especially interesting to anyone planning an early trip to some of the more remote access points. Stay tuned to this blog for more pictures - we're going into the park tomorrow!

Spring is over, winter has returned

I've had a few calls today from optimistic souls who thought they might go on an Easter weekend canoe trip in Algonquin Park. Regrettably, I had to inform them that they might consider hiking or even a little snowshoeing.

While the heavy rains of last week gave some hope that lakes might open early, winter has reappeared. On Monday, the temperature dropped and 10 to 15 cm of fresh snow fell in and around the park. We're thinking late April average ice-out.

Big hole spotted in Opeongo Lake

Satellite view of Opeongo, Cedar and Lavielle area from March 31.

I saved this for April 2 because nobody would have believed it if I posted yesterday. AO's Opeongo Store manager, Jerry Schmanda, took a bicycle ride up Opeongo Lake the other day to check on ice conditions. He reported that the ice surface was very firm, although there is soft ice near shore. North of Bates Island, Jerry observed several large pressure cracks and a most unusual large circular patch of open water, roughly 50 metres in diameter. On the fuzzy satellite image above, those of you who know Opeongo will notice a dark patch just north of the location of Bates Island. This, we believe, is the hole.

April 2 and the quinzee built for Winter Fun Day is still standing (sort of).

What are conditions like in Algonquin Park at the moment? Pretty typical for the time of year. There is still snow in the bush, though south-facing slopes are bare. Streams and rivers are open, with very high water levels. Lakes are still frozen, though starting to look a little grey. There are many signs of spring - I've even seen several robins.

Oxtongue Lake on April 2. Still frozen solid!