Snow affecting ice conditions

Last week, it was mentioned on the radio that we had a record amount of snowfall for the month of December in the Kenora area.
That was before the big dump we got just after New Year’s, so we certainly are experiencing a real Canadian winter thus far because we’re getting plenty of cold weather mixed in, as well.
For those of us who enjoy the outdoors, it influences our activities and certainly has effects on wildlife across the region.
Since the New Year, I’ve been guiding every day, with some hunters and anglers visiting to get after the great opportunities we have here in Sunset Country.
It has been a workout to say the least. Last week, for instance, I don’t think I could have gotten a better workout if I visited the gym every day between getting my snowmobile stuck about 30 times in deep snow and breaking trails into the places I wanted to go.
Since it was so cold, I think I had about 50 pounds of clothes on every day, as well, so that helped me get a sweat on when I was doing anything active.
Because of all the snow, ice conditions are not great. On most lakes, a lot of slush is popping up as all of the heavy snow pushes down on the ice.
The snow insulates the ice, as well, so it is delaying the formation of good ice.
On some of the shallower, smaller waters, enough ice formed before we received all the snow that it is safe for most activities. But some of the larger, deeper water, particularly the trout lakes, did not have all that much ice on them before we got the couple of big dumps of snow so they are not great.
A friend of mine who plows ice roads was asked to plow a road earlier this week across Clearwater Bay on Lake of the Woods. But when they went out to check the ice, they found only about five inches out in the middle of the bay, so he told his customer he would not be getting a road to his cabin this winter.
As the wind blows some of the snow off the ice and compacts it, the cold temperatures will get down to the ice and help to increase the thickness. It just takes time.
Meanwhile, it really is amazing to me how any of the wildlife we have actually can survive our brutal winters, especially when we have these stretches of cold weather.
I’m afraid for our deer population, which took a big hit three years ago when we had our last long, cold winter. Deer numbers slowly have been coming around but all this snow could be devastating to them this early in the winter.
I understand that deer numbers are high in our residential areas, but in the bush they are struggling.
While I was trekking through the woods on the weekend, I actually spooked a grouse out of the snow, which startled me. I knew that they used the snow for warmth but hadn’t actually witnessed it before.
It was pretty neat to see how the bird was burrowed in the deep snow to hide from the wind and cold. There were no tracks around its hole, either, so they must really dive bomb into the snow when they go for it.
I saw where rabbits were burrowing the same way—just a way that some of these critters stay warm, I guess.
Hopefully we get a break from this snow over the next few weeks; we certainly have enough to keep everybody happy now.
While there are some ice roads on area lakes, my advice is to stay on them with your trucks because there is so much snow and slush out there that your chances of getting stuck are very high and my feeling is the ice is less predictable than usual because of all the snow.
Stay safe our there!