We leave our wooden dock in the water because we have no other choice - it was constructed in two sections that are too large to remove. The most dangerous time is when the ice melts and breaks up. Large ice floes pushed by the wind will crush anything in their path. As a precaution, we remove some of the carriage bolts that attach the supports so they can pivot rather than break should the ice come our way. That said, we have had years when we returned to find the dock exactly as we left it and others where it needed a come-a-long and 5 or 6 strapping lads to get it back on its feet and into proper position. Last year we faced a new problem - we found the dock starting to float away after the Mother's Day floods. Had to lasso it and tie it to shore trees but it only took a couple of hours with the aforementioned resources to get it back in operation once the lake level dropped.
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