Ice Conditions Mille Lacs Lake Garrison Bay???

Hey guys considering hitting Garrison Bay this weekend anyone know what conditions are like? Hoping it will be safe for UTV travel?
Thanks
Bob

Drove by there Sunday (1/3) and did see about 10-12 portable houses fishing the reef out front there and yes I did see ATV travel but nobody more than 1/2-3/4 mile out I would say. I don’t think much ice has been made since last weekend and with no real cold weather coming in until Saturday night ice conditions really won’t change much until the weekend of 1/16. Hope that helps a little…RR

go to Garrison Sports FB page. I just posted on another thread. Not nearly as much ice as I anticipated.

https://www.facebook.com/Garrison-Sports-Inc-216067705094142/

I was up on Saturday the 2nd and able to check the ice in several places on the North side of the lake. In areas with “new” ice such as Garrison that had blown open over the week of Christmas we found as little as 3-3.5″ of ice under even small snow drifts. I would not drive in the Garrison area yet without personally walking out first and checking the area… Just because someone else has an ATV out don’t assume that they’ve checked it properly before driving out.

The North and NE side of the lake were in better shape as for the most part the ice there did not blow out over Christmas. We found 7-8.5″ out from Castaways in Malmo and they have an ATV trail staked out to the 3 mile sand breakline. Red Door was also allowing ATV traffic although they were dealing with a pressure ridge.

Overall I expect that resorts such as Hunter’s will most likely have a trail staked to the flats by this weekend for ATVs but I personally would not yet feel comfortable going cross country for another week.

I expect that skid houses will start going out near shore at many resorts by either this weekend or early next week.

Will

Same on the east side around big point Sat/Sun. Open water cracks that recently re-froze had 2-3 inches. Would not be going cross country with a wheeler right now.

-J.

I haven’t checked the resort websites but the MODIS picture on Monday looked pretty ugly to me – link is below, can’t attach a pic at work. Has anybody heard any chatter about this?

http://ge.ssec.wisc.edu/modis-today/index.php?satellite=t1&product=true_color&date=2016_01_04_004&overlay_sector=false&overlay_state=true&overlay_coastline=true&sector=USA3&resolution=250m

Thanks Everyone!
I think Im gonna pass on Garrision this time and maybe do something else

I went out for some Pike action on Garrison Bay yesterday.

Word of caution – be careful! Don’t expect others to use common sense.

I was in a Avalon, and drove out after seeing (2) 1/2 ton pickups out in the 14-16′ foot areas.

With the 6 holes I drilled, 4 were at 8″, 2 were at 10″. My butt puckered a bit, to say the least.

Wait on driving, if you are in a truck….

nubbinbuck wrote:

I went out for some Pike action on Garrison Bay yesterday.

Word of caution – be careful! Don’t expect others to use common sense.

I was in a Avalon, and drove out after seeing (2) 1/2 ton pickups out in the 14-16′ foot areas.

With the 6 holes I drilled, 4 were at 8″, 2 were at 10″. My butt puckered a bit, to say the least.

Wait on driving, if you are in a truck….

EXACTLY!! I talked to a very good source this morning who agreed with you that there is plenty of 9-10″ ice in the Garrison/St. Albans Bay area. Some are really pushing their luck and could end up getting somebody hurt or killed!!

Yes, there are areas on the lake that have 12″-14″ or even a hair more but in many of those same areas, there is also very marginal driving ice at best. Add the cold snap/lots of potential cracks due to the ice contracting/ no snow/plowed road banks to keep driving corralled and this weekend is a very questionable/concerning scenario. By Tuesday, no doubt, except for around the usual cracks, all the marginal ice areas will be or should be fine. Better to be LATE going out than sorry and wet or worse!!