Cold, Windy, Snowy and no fish
Went up to our place on family day to do a maintenance check and sure enough the snow load on the roof while not critical was getting close. Spent the rest of the day shoveling.
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By the time i was done i was wiped so ate dinner and went to bed. Set the alarm for 6 am with the plan being to spend the day on Nipissing before heading back home. Conditions Tuesday morning were -21, snowing and windy. Figured i am going anyways as who knows with COVID as to when the next chance will be. Got on the ice at Fish Bay. Cleared the islands in South Bay without too much issue but once in the open this was the view:
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After 15 minutes of those conditions the sun became just barely visible in the sky. Problem was it was in my face and not at my back where it's supposed to be. I had gotten completely turned around in the haze. Got my compass out and with the sun popping out off/on i was able to keep my bearings and get to my target location. My visor kept getting a frozen glaze on it so i rode must of the way with it open in order to see. My face when i arrived at my spot:
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Got set up in record time due to the cold and wind although getting the shelter up was a little tricky solo in the wind. The set up:
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Temperature eventually made it to -14 but the wind never died. Visibility improved to this by about lunch time:
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By lunch time i still had nothing to show for my efforts so packed up and headed 10 km across the open lake to the Manitou islands. Got one small perch there and other than that nothing. Headed back to the truck around 5 pm. Snow was 10 to 18 inches and varied from hardpack to soft powder. Periodic slush pockets but keeping it a decent speed worked fine. Ice was 17 inches at Meadow Bay and 14 inches at the Manitous. Total distance traveled was just over 45 km but probably 5 km or so was a loop when i got turned around.
