Tuesday April 23rd, 2013

Greetings and welcome!

Last weekend was a very fun one around Kosir’s and on the Peshtigo River. Quite a few people took to the river to brave the icy waters and challenge the big waves and rapids. The river was running about +10 to +12 and it ate more than a few paddlers.

By the 3pm trip the sun was doing its thing. The snow in the woods was getting soft, and the snow on the trail that I walked on top of at 10am was now soft for the first 4-5″ of its knee deep depth. On the way to the river I saw where streams of water were making thier way down the road from the snow banks on the sides.

The river came up a couple of inches over the course of the day. Ask any experienced paddler, and they will tell you that a rising river is a lot pushier than a falling one. Saturday afternoon it was rising fast and issuing lessons. I had a lot of Code 209 pictures where there was a raft with two people in the rapid, but only a paddle or helmet was showing.

At the end of the noon trip some sharp eyed bystanders spotted these guys along the river.

This weekend and next week will be spectacular for whitewater rafting. The weather from Friday to Monday is expected to start in the 60s Friday and Saturday and get up to 70 by Monday. Considering that it is still like winter in the watershed, the warm sunny days will put a lot of melt water into the river really fast and make it just roar. This is the weekend between the weather and the water. May 4th & 11th look very good too, but I can’t promise 60+ weather to go with the big water.

It does not look like April 23rd around here. The driveway is still deep with mud from the frost and the rain. The lakes are still frozen over and not really making any moves toward thawing out. When I was near Wabeno yesterday I’d guess that they had 85-90% snow cover left in the woods. Only sunny spots were bare. Here is the kicker.. We haven’t had a 60 degree day yet. Our normal high is 60, but we haven’t made it out of the 40s and 50s yet this year.

That frozen lake thing is throwing a lot of people curve balls. A check of the Lake-Link web site had fishing reports with 20-30″ of ice on Oneida Co lakes not too far from here. One friend walked across Chute pond last Friday, pretty comfortable that the 24″ of ice would hold them. When I went by Waubee Lake yesterday it was not really melting, not even by the edges. That is kind of scary stuff considering that fishing opens in 11 days.

The warm weather this weekend will be a welcome change. Last Saturday I was wearing long Johns, polar fleece, and wearing the boots that I snowmobile in. It will be nice to trade that in for jeans and a light jacket. The boots will probably stay, mostly because of the mud and melt water that I expect.

This year will be remembered as the year that winter hung on until late April. We have it bad, but to our northwest it is worse. Last week there was lake effect snow in the western UP and Vilas Co, and some places got a foot of the stuff and near blizzard conditions. Yesterday’s storm had the potential to bring those same areas another 5-10″. It could be worse.

Well I am going to run along and fill up the day. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB