This was taken just west of Cobden in the Ottawa Valley farming area. This lone tree looks fabulous all year.

And what do you see as you drive along the Scotch Line Road in the early spring evening, besides lots of mud and trees, but swamps, always good things to stop at and investigate.

Rainbow over the Scotch Line Road
The Stealth Bomber easily handled the Scotch Line Road on the weekend, and the "pot of gold" almost lived up to its billing.

Dock in the Clouds, 'nuff said.

It's been pretty crappy out the past day or so, and I haven't taken any new photos. Here's a shot from last week of Duchesny Falls with some ice.

Here's a view down the lake from yesterday morning. It sure looks different right now, as we have freezing rain and sleet happening. However, by Sunday we should be back to spring.

On Easter Monday evening there was a real feeling of spring in the air which, I find, is quite noticeable in this photo across the lake.

Upside down or not? Not. This is a reflection in Four Mile Creek of the tree on the bank. It's only at a certain angle that the creek water looks blue. From most angles it looks brown from the reflection of its banks.

Now that Trout Lake is ice free, I went for a bike ride through town yesterday to see the ice conditions on Lake Nipissing. There still is a bit of ice present, but it won't be long before it's gone as well.

In the distance are the Manitou Islands.

The ice piling up near shore resembles craters on the moon.

UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Yesterday the temperature was +28C here at the lake, and the wind blew very warm and gusty. By 1pm the lake was ice free - the ice is off the lake 3 weeks earlier than normal!! I've never seen it be ice free so early. So, I went for a paddle in the canoe.


As some "viewers" are aware, I really like reflection photos. Here's one of the little cabin just down the lake from our place.

And what do you do when the lake is ice free? You put the dock back in the lake, naturally. I guess it's time for the next step and get the boat in the water. Unbelievable!! It's only the beginning of April!!

One Mile Bay, Trout Lake

April 1, 2010, 10am

I took this photo on Thursday morning. Since then, it's been really warm, and the ice and snow have left One Mile Bay.

Not only is the ice leaving Trout Lake quickly, it's making an early exit on Lake Nipissing too. The former St. Joe's College sits quite nicely on this point on the west end of North Bay.

This is the beginning of the Easter long weekend holiday traffic. This was taken at the junction of Highway 63 East looking towards Trout Lake Road and Quebec beyond and Highways 11 and 17 running east-west through North Bay. I took this while waiting for traffic at noon yesterday. And, I was using a "hand held device," not a "hands free device."

No, it's not an April Fools' Day joke. There really is this much open water in front of our place. It's unbelievable for this time of year.

Last year on April Fools' Day the temperature was -25C. Today it will get to +20C, and by Saturday it will be +25C.

In our 12 years on the lake,the ice has left around April 25. This year it's going so fast it may disappear before April 10. I'm going canoe-ing this weekend.

I have some friends from Trenton who are flying to Cuba today for a week, so I'm posting these photos for them. This one is from Havana, off the tourist route, which I'm pretty sure they won't see.

This is more of what the Trentonites will be seeing as they enjoy the sun and warmth and all-in service. Sun and warmth, hmmmm, could have saved some dough and come to North Bay for that this week.

I took a photo of this pile of cedar rails a few years ago in the winter ( and sold a few copies). This is the first time I've revisited the site, but all I did this time was snap the photo as I was shooting the fire damage that was on the other side of the laneway. By the way, Mr.P., when was the winter cedar rails photo posted?

My buddy, Mendo from across the lake, came home from a "mission" in town on Saturday afternoon to find a brush fire at his place. Seems his neighbour, insert your own derogatory term here, was burning brush on a very dry, windy morning, and he left the fire unattended for a while. The results as seen from the photos above could have been a lot worse if Mendo hadn't returned home when he did. The fire department had to be called to put out the fire. Although the fire kept low to the ground, it burned along the ground very quickly and could have threatened a lot more of the bush and the nearby houses without the stopping power of the fire department. The upside is the burnt area will be very green and happy with new growth over the next few weeks.

I took this photo about 5 minutes ago. We have quite a lot of open water in front of our place. It's the earliest we have had so much open water in the 12 years we've been at the lake. Time to get the canoe ready.

7:40am, Monday, March 29, 2010

The ice in the above photo between the 2 sections of open water, i.e. the ice with the "open water" writing on it, disappeared over night, so there is a huge section of open water on the lake in front of our place.

It's pretty amazing how precarious some places are that trees hang on to. This white pine and red pine tree relationship is not only interesting because of the edge of rock they are hanging on to but also interesting in how intertwined their different root systems are.

Duschesney Falls was showing the cold nip in the air yesterday with lots of ice formations along the falls.

Here's another ice reflection photo taken yesterday morning. The melt of the lake ice has been slowed for a day as a 24 hour cold front moved in last night dropping temperatures to -19C with no hope of climbing above 0C until tomorrow.

I took this at 9am this morning, looking eastward towards the sun. The lake is melting, and it looks like the ice will leave earlier than normal.

For the most part, the snow has all but disappeared. Now we're just waiting for more warm temperatures so the ice will all melt.

The spring melt will be slowed somewhat over the next week or so as the high temperatures will hover around the freezing mark. It won't last, however, as time is against winter.

This photo of Sunny was taken last weekend while it was still possible to get out on the lake ice. She's standing pretty close to the pressure crack that is now really open. To get on the ice now from our place you'd need chest waders and nerves of steel as the ice is 10 feet from shore, and then it's pretty flimsy for 10 or more feet: not worth the effort.

GAWD and the Ice Marshall prepare to relax and enjoy the view down the length of Trout Lake.

"Shanky's Retreat" in all its glory.

With chainsaw and other implements of destruction, we scaled the heights of the Ice Marshall's land yesterday and carved out a spot for a lookout over the lake. A few large rogue trees had to fall, and we fabricated a bench from some of the smaller "victims." After the hard work was accomplished, we celebrated our endeavours in the usual manner.

The fall opening of the new bike/walking bridge over Highways 11 and 17 that was constructed last summer was too late in the year for me to check out on my bike. I did check it out, though, the other day and took these shots from inside. It's a complete enclosed bridge, obviously for safety reasons. The upper photo is looking southward along the highway, and the lower photo looks northward as the highway "snakes" through North Bay.

Yesterday afternoon, I went for my first bike ride of the year through town via the bike path along Chippewa Creek. It's pretty amazing to see some of the backyards and all the crap folks store there. This one in particular is really nasty.

Waves on open ice at the pressure crack.

Even though it's been warm and the ice is melting, if you choose to go swimming, as the sign says, "Caution, no lifeguards on duty."

Portage Park on the main part of Trout Lake is one of my fave spots to take photos when the seasons change. The ice break up is just beginning, and the snow is rapidly melting.

This pressure crack now has open water, and at this point it's about 50 feet deep.

We went for a walk on the ice yesterday, probably the last one this winter. In this photo Pat and Spike are walking along the open pressure crack that is about 100 feet off shore. The open water is in an area where the water depth is 50 feet. It's a very early spring here, and it looks like the ice is starting to break up early. It is, however, 4 weeks or more from being ice free.

Dry dock, umm, snow dock, err, ice dock??