Ariel is soooo excited. The lake is entirely frozen, meaning a whole new gambit of off lead playing and learning! Where we live, we don't get off lead time too often unfortunately, unless we're in the bush (with the wolves that are now around...). We've been on a few lake walks already, and she's doing really well when we walk the shoreline. Lots of new smells, and people out and about, but she's doing great. Next week we'll start our trekking across the lake and back, probably about 5-6km round trip. Love being outside with her again, now that the freezing cold has left for a couple of days. She was too young to enjoy the outdoors last year so this is a real treat for both of us. 20180102_134945 by Jazzmynn1, on Flickr; 20180102_134553 by Jazzmynn1, on Flickr; 20180102_134533 by Jazzmynn1, on Flickr; 20180102_134514 by Jazzmynn1, on Flickr
It’s actually Trout Lake in North Bay. Only about 8 miles long and not too wide, with lots of lovely bays to explore. Perfect for kayaking in the summer.
Maybe I was thinking of someone else. Ontario’s pretty big but maybe we’re close. That would be awesome! Where are you located? I believe we have someone near the Muskoka area and someone in the Petawawa area too.
Pretty much!! We actually gauge it by the weather/cold temps, which we’ve had plenty of so far. Freezing starts at the shoreline and works it’s way outwards, so shorelines will be safe to walk on first. Then we wait until the snowmobile trail gets staked further out and we’re good to go! Needless to say Ariel is not allowed off lead during the weeks to freeze up, and the weeks when the ice gets weak in the spring. Sorry you asked?? Lol
Not sure if you’re teasing me or not....but here you go! As the sun gets stronger in the spring, it melts the snow off the ice, then starts heating up the ice. It takes quite a bit as the ice can be up to 2ft thick or more in most places. The ice starts to turn gray, then blackens daily as the sun beats on it. Along the shore, which breaks up first, it often turns to a honeycomb formation, and actually makes a tinkling sound when it starts to move. Quite nice. The ice contines turning colour until it’s extremely black and either starts to sink, or blows around if it’s windy, breaking itself up on the shore. We panic every spring as we’ve had significant damage done if it starts moving when it’s still very thick. It can move huge boulders, push the shoreline up, break docks/decks etc. We always cross our fingers that the wind will blow it to the oopposite shoreline. And that my friends is your science lesson for today!
Interesting stuff. Pleased Ariel having a good time. It's very windy here in the UK today, winds Cassie up to fever pitch of excitement !
