We got on the ice/slush around 11:00 today. Lake conditions had changed dramatically over the week, and almost all of the snow had melted and had made lots of crusty slush and water underneath. You had to sail across the lake around 65 to keep from getting bogged down, and there were some divots where people had stopped and started. No worries about getting stuck or going through, just a very dense covering on top of the ice. The skips started a little later today, not many out early, and the crowd eventually trickled in, mainly because you had to use the boat landing as you would launch a boat, no one parked on the ice near the road end, but several made their way out to the river area. Later on, the four wheelers were plodding their way thru the deepening slush, as the crust got softer and the wheels dug in more. Lots of mayhem out today. The biggest "SAVE OF THE DAY" award (IMHO) went to a guy on a Ski-Doo, wailed until about half way down the run, started losing control, got tossed off the sled, but hung on to keep it afloat, never dropped RPM's, then lost a boot as he floundered alongside, and then lost the other boot about fifty feet further, kept the speed up all the way as he made his way back onto the ice top. The boots floated around for around 20 minutes, I think he went skipping in his socks a few more times after that, too. Lots of near misses, and many sunken sleds. One guy said he had gone down three times.
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The "parking lot":
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