We had been very lucky not to have any serious crack problems as many of the other resorts on Mille Lacs had to deal with prior.......but this Saturday Morning as temperatures began to drop we had four cracks develope with in 100 feet of our access on shore. The crew at the resort arranged the brides allowing traffic to get on and off the ice by midday.
Late last night another crack developed between the two bridges causing more issues. As of 8am we are now back in business with our lake access.
The ever changing temperatures can cause cracks and when you see a drop from 36-38 degrees to single digits......."it's trouble"
I'm home today enjoying a day off! But it's hard not to watch the webcam and see all the action at the access.....nice work there guys! guess I'll have another cup of coffee
I hate to wish for snow since that is another issue to deal with on the ice but the crack issues are compounded by not having any snow on the ice. Without the insulating aspect of a normal foot of snow on the ice, the temp changes create more expansion and or contraction than normal--if there is such a thing as normal. Instead of subtle changes each day, the changes are more extreme each day(or by the hour).
It seems like a chess match lately. Trying to stay one up on the ice movement is hard on the old nerves......but thanks to the Red Door team, and the patience of all the ice anglers, no one or no vehicles have been wet. No doubt, we will be very vigilant to keep it that way!
Cold! No snow on the ice. If you have a house that wasn't blocked up before the rain Friday, it most likely is froze in. New banking is now non-existant until the next snow/wind that will drift a little around the houses.
As predicted, the ice reacted to the 40 degree plus temp fall. Thank you to everyone for your patience this weekend as we worked to keep the access safe and open. We got everybody off and on until late Saturday night when we had to close it down until early this (Sunday)morning. Bridging three cracks at once was a chess match and forced us to have all wheel houses leave the lake today via Barnacles. THANK YOU to Barnacles for allowing that to happen. We hope to be down to one bridge and one crack by Monday morning.
Fishing reports were all over the board. "Good", "GREAT!", "a little slow" and "NOTHING!" Some had to keep the lines out of the water to get some sleep and others had quiet nights. They say "that's fishing!"
Bobber, my hats off to you and all the staff of the Red Door. I watch you guys all the time on your web cam. Very impressed on how all the staff keep track of the ice conditions. I just hope someday I can make it back to the Red Door Resort. Brother and I had a blast when we were there a few years ago.
