Is the Ice Out Yet?

     Every year around this time we start receiving what seems like thousands of telephone calls and e-mails asking us if the ice is out yet.  I want to assure all of you as my Boundary Waters Blog readers that you will be among the first to know when the ice goes out on Saganaga, Scouts Honor.

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     We are expecting the ice to go out this year during the first week of May as it normally does.  The moose pond on County Road 81 went out on Friday, April 20th so that puts ice out on Saganaga on the 4th of May.  Mike was hoping the ice on the Seagull River would last a little bit longer than it did.   

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   Mike and our neighbor Michael Valentini started constructing a new dock on the ice of the Seagull River on Wednesday, April 18th.  They continued working on Thursday with the help of another friend, Steve Ramberg.  The ice was so soft Mike punched through up to his waist when he stepped off of the dock.  He assured me the water was quite cold and it was too early to go swimming.  Although there was about a foot of ice it was very soft and by Friday it had all disappeared and left the completed docks floating on the river.