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Welcome to the 11th annual ice-out contest: win a canoe rental or a T-shirt if your guess is the best

Today is April 19. The front of the lodge looks like this:

Here is the view from the webcam this afternoon. You can see the faintest hint of the dock reappearing. Boats definitely will not be parked at this dock in the near future. We still have 24 inches of ice on our bay, plus ample snow cover. We’ve heard reports of 40 inches on Gunflint Lake, and 25 – 35 inches on Ely lakes.

Bearskin has been buried in deep snow since a snowstorm on October 26, 2017.  We are exceedingly ready to launch spring. So in hopes of kick-starting a fresh, new season, it’s time to start the 11th Annual East Bearskin Lake Ice-out Guessing Game for 2018. 

The winner gets a T-shirt, mug, or (new this year!) if you’re outfitting or staying with us you can win one free day of a canoe rental. Post your answer in the blog comments below, on the Facebook page, or e-mail your answer to stay@bearskin.com.  Give us a both a predicted date and a time. The time helps us choose a winner if there are multiple answers for the same date.

Of course, your answer will be very well-researched. Here’s all the info you need to make a fact-based, educated guess. What’s a normal ice-out date? May 6th – 8th would be a typical date. Late March, late April and yes, late May have all occurred.  East Bearskin tends to be one of the earlier lakes to go out on this side of the BWCAW; the long, somewhat narrow configuration of this lake speeds up the melting process.

Our upcoming weather forecast finally looks like spring:

Rain helps. Wind helps. A day of snow does not help. So far, there’s no new snow in this forecast, but there have been years when 2 feet of new snow appeared in late April. Behold late April, 2013.

This year the Minnesota fishing opener will be May 12.  Some years ice fishing seems far more appropriate on our fishing opener, such as on the first day of fishing in 2014. The technique pictured is not a “best practice.”

If you want to do more thorough research, follow these links to learn about the history of the ice-out on East Bearskin Lake over the past 11 years.