Staff
It’s now smooth sailing around the north arm of Rainy Lake.
Al Boivin, of Rainy Lake Boat Taxi, said this morning that most of the ice is gone.
“I went out for a boat ride on Saturday morning, and there was a big chunk [of ice] located in the Crowe Island and Hopkins Bay area,” Boivin recalled.
“But the passage way up through the canoe channel, and the whole north arm, was open on Saturday morning,” he noted.
With “ice-out” coming Saturday (April 30), it marked the exact same day it was declared last year.
Boivin said “ice-out” usually occurs within a week before or after May 1.
In recent years, however, it has been anything but consistent.
“Ice-out” was not declared until late May two years ago while in 2012, it was declared on April 9—the earliest on record.
Although the south arm of Rainy Lake was not clear of ice on the weekend, Boivin believes it should be gone by now or later today at the latest, thanks to the sunny skies over the past few days.
“I just talked to a guy [who] said on the weekend there was still a piece of ice in Seine Bay just south of Little Rocky Narrows—that was about it,” he remarked.
But Boivin also warned boaters to be cautious as water levels currently are lower than normal.
“I know they raised the lake but it’s still lower than it is during the summer, so be aware the water in the lake is a foot lower to a foot-and-a-half lower right now,” he stressed.
