The difference a week makes...

Good morning Cruiser Lake cottagers!  I am pleased to inform you that spring has officially arrived in Haliburton County.  The ice is completely gone from our lake - the last of it disappeared on May 2.

The lake then - April 27, 2014

The lake now - May 5, 2014

First Flowers

The peepers are singing and some brave and hardy plants are beginning to poke their heads through the leaf cover in response to the warming presence of the sun.  Horray!

I walked the road on April 27.  The work that was done last summer held up beautifully!  There is no sign of damage from run off. 













There was still a foot of snow in the shaded stretch beside the beaver pond, but I am optimistic that it has melted during this past week.  I am hoping to walk through there again today to confirm.

The road is drying up, but still very rough in 3 or 4 spots before our driveway.  The spot at the mill parking lot is by far the worst.  They have not yet done anything about it as it is still VERY wet and muddy.  The frost was deeper in the ground this year than it has been in some time.  Temperatures of -30C for extended periods will do that.  As a result a few of our smaller culverts heaved and require significant repair.  Michael is going to attempt to dig them out by hand and reset them.  We are hoping to get to the worst of them on Sunday if the weather is reasonable.

On a more pleasant note, last Sunday I met a local orinthologist and photographer Dan Busby who has an exhibit at the Rails End Gallery (running until sometime in June).  He is on the look out for Hooded Merganzer.  We believe that we have at least one pair on the lake.  We invited him to come by to confirm and photograph them.  Please let us know if you have any issue with him accessing your shoreline on foot.  You can check out his work here:  http://danbusby.ca

Enjoy the sunshine!

The Power of Positive Thinking

We all need to thank Sonia for the strength of her optimism about spring here at Cruiser Lake.  I am pleased to report that over the past 20 days since our last post, the snow levels have declined dramatically.  We are not yet entirely free of snow, but the sun, mild temperatures and winds over the past few weeks have made more than a considerable dent.  Horray!

Plow banks are all that remain in this area

Shaded areas continue to host as much as a foot of snow

Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, the lake is still completely frozen over.  There is some evidence of shoreline thawing, but only in limited areas.  I have learned from locals that it often doesn't take long once the edges start to go, but we'll see.  It was below freezing over night a few times this week, so we are not completely in positive temp territory just yet.

The road is mostly clear of snow - even the portion that was not plowed.  We haven't had a chance to walk the whole length, so I can't say for sure that it is entirely clear.  That being said, it is VERY wet and muddy in some areas.  The work that was done on our driveway in 2013 withstood the winter and the spring thaw very well.  I expect the same is true for the rest of the work done last summer, but I need to go and check.  The plowed portion of the road is mostly thawed and beginning to dry out.  The strange thing is the worst spots are on the top of 2 or 3 of the hills.  We think these areas thawed first as a result of direct sun exposure.  The surrounding ground was frozen solid and the water had nowhere to go so these areas became saturated.   We have been moving as much of the standing water off the road as possible.  I spoke to Mike Rae this week about some interim measures we could take to stabilize the situation.  Unfortunately he didn't think there is much that can be done with equipment until things dry up a bit more.  I had the opportunity to talk to Larry Hewitt last night.  He is optimistic that the frost is mostly out of the ground on exposed roads and once the thaw is complete the roads should dry up pretty quickly as standing water is absorbed.

One of the worst spots is the approach to the mill parking lot.  Ruts are upwards of 10-12" deep as the standing water has completely saturated the ground.  We spoke to someone from the mill earlier this week.  They are planning to do something to try to smooth out that spot next week.  We really appreciate their help with this as mill traffic on the road has been light this spring. 

Needless to say, as much as we would love to see you all, it is not recommended that you come up just yet.  Your vehicles would likely not survive the current conditions and the additional traffic could damage the road.  We considered moving out for a few weeks this spring to avoid driving on the road during this soft season.  Unfortunately there was so much water collecting at the basement door that we had to be here to pump out the run off.  We have a plan to address that before next year, but can't do that before the ground is completely thawed.

We found the following link on the online edition of the Highlander.  It sums up the situation quite well.  You can find it here:  http://highlanderonline.ca/snow-and-ice-update?id=785

Let's all pile on and add the weight of our optimism and warm thoughts to Sonia's incredible cosmic aura.  If we do,  I am sure we can tip the balance and encourage the Mother Nature to bring on the sun! 

We will continue to keep you apprised of the progress.  In the event that the road is passable for the long weekend, we would love to see you.  We are planning the Grand Opening of the brewery for the afternoon of May 17.  Abbey Gardens is hosting their season opening event that afternoon and we will be part of it.  We are busy making final preparations for the season - exciting!  We can't wait to share the results of our efforts with our cottage neighbours.  

Spring Stomp

We received a lovely email from Sonia last night asking about the status of the road for spring access.  After we stopped laughing, it inspired us to go for a spring stomp to determine just exactly how much snow is still on the road.  The short answer is A LOT (the reason for our LOL response to Sonia's optimistic inquiry).   For a more detailed, if not entirely scientific answer, you are welcome to view the results of our measuring adventure below.

The first thing to be addressed as we prepared for our hike this afternoon, was what equipment is appropriate for a spring snowshoe?  We enjoyed plus temperatures most of this past week, with a considerable amount of rain yesterday.  It has been practically perfect maple syrup weather with warm days and nights still below zero.  While we have had a considerable amount of melt (which we - ok mostly Micheal - have been sucking up with a shop vac at our basement door) the lake is still fully covered, but likely getting quite soft.  The snow is now unstable and even with snowshoes did not reliably hold our weight last week.  We had to put Lucy back in the house as we were concerned she might break a leg sinking so far into the heavy snow as she was bounding around trying to follow us.

We decided that it would be fastest to cut across the creek and Gren & Beth's property to connect with the road.  There is open water at the creek - has been all winter.  






Ringo managed to trot right off the edge of the ice last weekend and took a polar bear dip.   




















This led to the decision that the best gear for this spring stomp would be hip waders and snowshoes. 

You may not be able to tell from this photo, but Michael is sporting a very striking pair of neoprene bibbed waders provided by his mom.  I am not sure she expected them to be used with snowshoes but there were no contra-indications mentioned in the user manual.

After losing a snowshoe in the creek (me) - fortunately it was stuck on a rock and did not float away - we managed to slog across Gren & Beth's, sinking up to our knees on several occasions and giggling (mostly me, and not so much Michael) all the way to the road.  Fortunately James and his brother were up a couple of weeks ago for some snowmobiling, so the going was much better on the snowmobile track along the road.

Once we got to the bottom of the hill, we took our formal measurement. 

I did my best to ensure my feet were on the gravel.  The depth of the current snow on Sonia and Andre's driveway is - wait for it.....









66cm or 26 inches.








If we have plus temperatures consistently throughout the month of April and no additional snow beyond the 2-3cm we received today, maybe we will see bare ground in Haliburton county, and our road in particular, by the May long weekend.

Trust us, we wish it would happen sooner too!

We will keep you posted with updates as there are meaningful (and measurable) changes in the conditions. 

We are looking forward to seeing you all when it is actually spring here.  We need to find a date for our annual meeting - give some thought to your late May and June calendars and let me know what might work for you.

We long ago decided that Mother Nature is testing our resolve this winter - just making sure that we really want to do this thing - live year round in cottage country that is.

November, as you will recall from the prior posts was full of rain, flooding, wind and downed trees.

December was the month of non-stop snow.  It snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed.  Almost every day.  We plowed and shoveled almost non-stop (or so it seemed) until the holidays.  It was great that She decided we all deserved a break after the ice storm She delivered that brought the GTA to a grinding halt, but as a result we were not able to make use of the many young, strong hands we had available to us to assist with the shoveling. Oh well.  We enjoyed the break and lots of fun days with family - building a quinzee, snowshoeing on the lake, skiing and snowboarding at Sir Sam's.  Michael and I marked the turning of the year with our first starlit snowshoe on the lake.  It was very cold but the stars were twinkling and the moon was a waning sliver in the sky.  The best new year's eve we have enjoyed in a long time.

January has been the month of bitter frigid temperatures.  It was -31.9C on the morning of Jan 3rd.  This does NOT include windchill.  The following weekend it rained and when it turned cold again two days later our road turned into a 2.5km luge track.   We managed to get the jeep up the hill using the chains and then parked at the excavator parking lot and walked in and out the 1km to the cottage - wearing ice grippers on our boots.  I had a commitment in the city on Friday.  We managed to find chains for my car in Gravenhurst and I was able to make my way out (from the top of our driveway) on Thursday afternoon.  Hawk River came on Thursday night and sanded the road which helped some.  The irony was that we actually were hoping it would snow that week to cover the ice!

We didn't have to wait long for the bitter frigid cold temperatures to return with a vengeance!  Day after day of -25, -29 culminated in an ultimate low point of -35.4C on Jan 21.  The balm for our weather beaten souls was the sunshine.  We enjoyed several beautiful sunny days during January which helped to make the cold bearable, though it became frustrating that it was difficult to spend any length of time outside enjoying the sparkling snow.

I finally did venture out last Wednesday.  It was still well below -20C but the sun was shining brightly and the wind was minimal.  I strapped on my snowshoes and made my way around the lake.  It was glorious!  The snow was a sparkling blanket on the lake.  Birds were flitting among the trees, chirping and twittering.  There were a few animal tracks running across the lake, but the snow was largely unmarked.  As I approached the north end of the lake I noticed a strange imprint in the snow.  As I got closer I realized it must be the wing prints of a large bird of prey. 

The wing length was at least 12 inches.  Could this have been a snowy owl?  The level of feather detail from the wing tips and tail left in the snow was incredible.
A little further along there was evidence of a chase.

 I continued along the north shore of the lake and soon came upon evidence of a significant struggle. 

  

At the outer edge of this area I found the most beautiful print showing both wings and a full tail.  Amazing.

Further along from this successful kill was an area where tufts of feathers were scattered over the snow some distance from the site of another snatch and grab.  This time the prey seemed to be a smaller bird rather than a rodent. 

I would love to catch a glimpse of a snowy owl this winter.  I have never seen an owl in the wild.  So much to still discover and experience!

While this winter has been a logistical challenge both in terms of maintaining ingress/egress and finding ways to successfully brew in the cold from the cottage (another story - NO, the garage is NOT finished) we are managing to stay warm, remain largely positive and have been blessed with glimpses of the spectacular among the overwhelming daily beauty of this place.