Two days of fishing just around the corner of our point yielded 15 bass in short order, lots of action! The three boys kept me busy getting fish off the hook and into a bucket.
/im
Category: The Lake
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Fishing with Grandkids & Friend
Day #1 08/20 in Red, Day #2 08/21 in Green 7.52 NMi or 13.9 km Parker Aryton Dane -
Around Hay Island with C & E
A nice calm and sunny day and our friends C&E are at the cottage with us for a few days so we decide on a boat cruise.
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Route Bay Rip
2022/08/12 – 10 NMi or 18.5 km A solo cruise over to the Route Bay boat lift into Blindfold Lake to check out the water levels at the lift. Levels are down to a manageable level and the fixed concrete dock on the Blindfold side is out of the water and the railway cart appeared to be operational .
On the way over I looped by the old Wilstrop place and there seems to have been a massive update with a major building expansion connected by a very large deck.
I saw lots of people enjoying the lake on this warm August day, swimming, fishing and two kids jumping off a boathouse roof into the lake. That looked like great fun!
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Going Down
Finally, the Lake of the Woods water level appears to be on the way down. Let the dock repairs begin. ☹️
Lake of the Woods water levels – a general dock disaster -
Here today, gone tomorrow
We’re back at the lake and this is the view that greeted me when I went down to the dock.
Hmmm, there is something missing here. For those in the know there should be a 20’ section of dock with an 8×16’ floating dock attached to it over where those two random looking posts are in the water and connecting to the far left site of the dock that is still holding on, barely.
Yes, the lake level is high and thanks to some recent torrential downpours in the area it continues to go up.
The dock was there last weekend but I suspect due to a violent storm that went through the area on Tuesday July 19th and the ongoing wave action that has been rocking the whole dock system for a couple of months now, it just couldn’t hang on any longer.
Thankfully, the dock segment didn’t go too far away and it’s just around the corner to the north of us in a small bay next to our neighbours dock. I’ve tied it up there and I guess it will remain there until the lake levels go down to a point where repair efforts can be made.
Runaway dock The lounge chairs that were on the dock also went missing. I did my best “Mike Nelson” impersonation and looked underwater along the shore line between our dock and the neighbours where the runaway dock is currently residing. Turns out they were in front of the floating section at it’s current resting position in about 8’ of water. One by one I dove down, attached a rope and then hauled them back up. The are now tied to the dock to prevent any further underwater recovery efforts.
Lake life, the best life. ?
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Peak?
Has Lake of the Woods reached it’s peak level yet? Perhaps. Signs are encouraging as a recent report indicates a 1/2″ drop in a week.
After a very rapid rise it’s starting to decrease To say the lake is a little high is an understatement. It passed the 2014 high water level by a long way and our dock is holding on by a thread at this point. No loss of lumber but going up and down like a yo-yo with the waves and wakes.
Buckets and garbage cans full of water trying to hold the dock top from breaking up Inflow to Lake of the Woods is decreasing as the major upstream lakes in the basin have peaked and are dropping.
These much drier conditions have caused all tributary flows across the basin to drop considerably and return to high-normal or normal flow rates for this time of year. All major lake inflows have also peaked and have returned to a high-normal range for this time of year. Finally, with these drier conditions being sustained and allowing inflows to continue to trend downward, all major lakes have also peaked. Lac Seul and Namakan Lake levels are very close to their normal range for this time of year. Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods levels remain exceptionally high, but significant reductions in level are expected for the months of July and August on these two lakes should dry conditions persist.
http://lwcb.ca/noticeboard/2022/07/07/2022-07-07-june-precipitation/Estimates are that if the weather is dry that levels may return to normal by mid-august. What is normal? Well, that’s a 2 1/2 foot drop from the current levels to what is considered the top end of the operating range for the lake. That drop would be just right for our dock situation.
Outflows from the Lake of the Woods are at maximum as the Norman dam remains fully open.
July 4, 2022 at the Norman Dam -
Higher Ground
If this gets any more interesting we may be looking for higher ground. The lake level was high on the May long weekend and it’s been getting higher ever since. When we arrived at the lake last night we were greeted by some changes in our dock situation.
Since May 3, 2022 the lake has gone up 37.8 inches, over 3 feet! On about May 24th it surpassed the most recent high level reached in 2014. Before that you have to go back to 1950 before the lake was ever this high.
This morning it was down to the dock for some remedial action to clean things up and perhaps weigh things down a bit so there is no more damage or hopefully minimal damage. The garbage cans were nice more loaded with water and a few buckets I found floating around the shore line were all pressed into service. All the accumulated debris was cleared up. Big pieces were gathered on shore for future re-use or burning and the smaller gunk was pushed into the water and sent on it’s way further down the lake.
After the cleanup 
Thankfully our dock is in a sheltered area on the east side of the point. The neighbours across the road have a huge dock under water and exposed to the prevailing west winds which blow across a 5 mile open expanse before hitting their dock. Lots of fun wave action.
They have 12 of those large water filled containers holding their dock down and even then there is some movement with the wave action.
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High and going higher
Oh yeah, the water is high and getting higher in the coming week and it’s raining today.?
Lake of the Woods water levels are now higher that I’ve ever experienced in 40+ years of lake life. It’s well over our original dock.
Our floating dock section is now riding higher that the fixed section and we normally use a 3 step ladder to get down to the floating dock!. Also in this picture. below the far end has been floated up several inches but still seems to be attached to the underlying crib. I’m sure there will be some repairs needed when the lake goes down.
That right hand end shouldn’t be tilting up like that! The boat ramp that last year I had to put a skid extension on to get the boat over some rocks because the water was so low is now almost getting ready to float away. The back end is floating and I think the boat on the new roller system is helping to hold it down a bit.
Record precipitation this spring in the basin has lead to record inflows to the Lake of the Woods resulting in very high levels.
The current level of Lake of the Woods is 323.89 m (1062.6 ft), over 95th percentile level for this time of year. The average lake level rose by 10 cm (4 in) over past week. The lake level has risen above the 2014 peak of 323.78 m (1062.29 ft) and is below the record peak since regulation began of 324.31 m (1064.0 ft), set in July of 1950.
http://lwcb.ca/noticeboard/2022/06/01/lake-level-forecasts-2022-06-01/The level of Lake of the Woods is expected to rise by approximately 9-12 cm (4-5 in) over the next 7 days
http://lwcb.ca/noticeboard/2022/06/01/lake-level-forecasts-2022-06-01/This next jump in the level could put the whole dock at risk ☹️. Return to normal lake levels “could be many weeks out”.
On the bright side the boat slip could now float the Queen Mary ?
Lower kayak is touching the water A view from the boat.
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Col de route secondaire trois
Photo by Drone Trotter on Pexels.com There is this hill.
It’s on branch road 3 off the main Storm Bay Road.
It’s steep but mercifully short.
It’s always at the end of a ride coming home, when there is a little less in the tank.
There are two pitches with a short less steep bit in the middle to try and recover for the final push to the summit.
Yesterday, I had the Wahoo Element disaying the grade. All of it over 10% and a 50 feet of 19%!
