4/21/22 – Although it really doesn’t look like spring around here, our first crew member of the season showed up yesterday which means paddling season is just around the corner…right? Per tradition, we had him measure the current ice thickness on Sawbill Lake. As of 1:30pm today Sawyer measured at least 42″ from the bottom of the ice to the top of the snow, which is about all our auger could handle and just longer than our official measuring stick. The top 20″ was mostly comprised of snow and frozen slush. Under the main hole there was lots of variation in ice. One side we couldn’t feel the bottom edge of the ice and the other side seemed to taper off closer to the 42″ mark.

The forecast for the next few days looks like mostly rain, so it’ll be interesting to see how much the liquid precipitation eats away at the snow and ice. Also of note, I measured 32″ of snow in the woods yesterday morning. -Jessica