Thru the ice - Meredith Bay
 

Just saw a UTV and Camper go thru the ice at the launch in Meredith Bay.

Attached is a pic

Yikes that's a scary sight. I hope they are ok.
This will be busy evening.

OK seriously what was going through this person's head after 2 solid weeks of above freezing temps and all the rain fall?!?

Apparently, not too much. lol

Meredith Weekender, any pics of the removal?

No pics of the removal. As of this morning the camper was sitting on pavement near the boat launch and the UTV is gone. The ramp has been closed and is in pretty bad shape at this point.

I hope you don't mean gone as in sunk.
Hopefully the cold weather this week will be enough to make the area safe.

Despite the warm temps and rain, I was very surprised at how much some of the ice had pulled away from the rocks at the shoreline.

But, just a tease...looking at next week's temps, it'll lock up again very quickly.

Heard this call come in Friday night. It was actually kind of funny to listen to the cop call it in and his response. He just seemed like he didn't know what he was looking at, but he knew that it was not what he wanted to be dealing with.

How did the accident happen?.......slipped down into the water?

My guess is someone wanted it on the ice near their ice fishing hole and thought the ice could hold the weight.

Tough spot for a winter ramp.
 

The Meredith ramp is in a poor spot for winter use. You have acres of open water at the docks (aquatherms) and the whole of lake Waukewan pouring down from Mills Falls like Niagra Falls....(NIAGRA FALLS, slowly I turned...).

I really don't have a solution except to build a ramp across from MVSB as a drop off and park in the lot by old Aubuchons. That sounds like a traffic problem.

So I hope that the town will have some cones handy and if you "get the mushies" at the ramp do a favor and put out the cones. If someone decides to pull the cones and give it a shot, at least they have been warned.

Misty Blue

Flew over the lake a few days ago. I was surprised at the areas of open water.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j2...psbb5fdbf4.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j2...psc0841501.jpg


http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j2...ps8a480320.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j2...psdbe90068.jpg

Nice Pics!
 

Cool pics! When were they taken??

In the second and third pic down from top, if that's Welch Island at 4:00 o'clock, that is not open water to the left (West) of it or rear (North) of it.

I was across that entire area on Saturday and there is a solid 6" - 9" of black ice. What you see there that looks like open water, is wind blown snow in the lighter areas with black ice in all the darker areas. It is very deceiving even on the ice as I stopped many times to check the thickness!

Between Welch and Braun bay and everything in between is solid ice also.

The only open water I am aware of is at the Southeast tip of Welch that extends to the southern shore near Ellacoya State Park.

Obviously proceed with care and caution whenever on the ice checking thickness as you go.

Dan

Thanks for posting the pics.
The more the merrier, do you by any chance have a picture of what the ice runway looks like from above, or maybe a bob house village?

Meredith Falls
 

I was up the Lake yesterday checking on things. What I noticed was a "lot" of water coming over the falls. Does that much water affect the ice in the bay, lifting moving,etc. Wonder if this had anything to do with the ramp not being safe.


Dave M

If you look at the websites that post lake level data (SnakeEyes, Bizer, etc), the lake is as high as it's been in many years at this time. No surprise given how much snow and ice melted last week during the brief thaw.

At one point last week I stood on my shoreline and listened to the sounds of the streams around Merrymeeting pouring in. It sounded like it usually does in March or April.

I have to believe that all that water moving around has a big impact on the state of the ice.