Just got back without putting the boat in the water! The river re-froze to about 1/4-1/2 mile below birchdale. The ice some guys were breaking thru was 3-4″ pack-ice for about 100′, then another 100+ feet of varying thickness skim ice. Took a scouting trip on Saturday because it was 17 degrees and blowing 20-30 mph. I-falls launch (Shorewood) looked fine, even a dock in the water there. Pelland (Kuttes) launch as well as the river around it was 98% clear. Only problem was the end of the launch … river’s so low that most of the concrete pads are above water. You go to drop a boat in and you fall off the last concrete pad. No problem for putting in, but for getting out it would create some troubles. I’ve got a warrior trail bunk trailer, and I know I would hang a cross-beam on that last pad before my tires reached it, thus making it tough getting out at all! Some guys were pulling it off, most had roller trailers with smaller boats, or a dual-axle set-up. If you try it, think about taking something to wedge between your tires and that last pad, might make it easier. Manitou Rapids & Franze Jevne launches had a ton of shore ice, as well as more fast-moving chunks out in the middle. Looking East from Birchdale, all you see is WHITE ICE! I think with the re-freeze, the ice that is moving is jamming up somewhere between Franz Jevne & Birchdale. We thought that if the river does start moving again, a guy could be in trouble at Birchdale. You could get out OK, but if that shore ice starts moving and packing-in, good luck busting through that stuff getting back to the launch. Conservation warden @ Birchdale about 3:30 PM said that that same thing happened earlier last week, guys got out but had a terrible time getting back to the launch. The groups that have made it out (and we happened to notice they were all much younger … 20-30 … than us ) were catching some fish, but no real “banner” numbers. Also … because of the strong N winds over the last three days, all pack ice is being pushed against the US side. Every last boat at Birchdale was fishing in Canada. The C.O. didn’t care, he said he had no jurisdiction (makes sense). Anyway, figured maybe we’ll return late this week. Last night the temp was 8 degrees, and we were pretty sure without looking at Birchdale again what was going on over there. Only thing that we were PO’d about was we forgot the ice-fishing gear! Multiple groups were doing good off of Grayson (sp?) Beach on LOW thru the ice. Oh well … somedays mother nature makes you tuck your tail and say, “You win”. We’ll be back!
April 8, 2007 at 8:25 pm
#1285411
