Frozen

The last few years in this area have not been good to ice fishermen. At least that’s what I hear. Last year the lake barely froze over. By March it had thawed.

This year started more optimistically. Parts of the bay were already frozen by New Year’s — the shallower, calmer water over by Ashland. Here it’s deep and the current rips through a narrow pass between our cabin and Long Island. This is the mouth of Chequamegon Bay, which means it’s the last place to freeze.

Every day since temps dropped below freezing, a steady parade of cars drive past our house down to the boat launch ramp to check on the ice. Day after day they come, cars idling while the occupants stare out at the water, waiting for it to ice over.

Every morning when Elliott and I walk the dog we stare out of the lake, wondering what the signs are that tell you when it’s going to ice over. Some mornings there is a thin slurry of ice on the surface, but it disappears as the wind and waves pick up during the day. Some days there are piles of ice chunks on the shore, but then the next day they are gone. Then one day we came down to the water and there were big pieces of ice piled up around the shore. The next day there was more of it, like great puzzle pieces slowly fitting into shape.

As the puzzle pieces seal up, pressure ridges form, where the forces of wind and the water below are enough to push up great masses of ice, smashing and grinding like tectonic plates in miniature.

Even as it got firmer here, I still didn’t want to go out on the ice where current runs strong beneath it when there were much safer places farther up the bay. The kids and I drove down to Memorial Park and went for a walk on the ice. It was surreal to stand and walk around where, in the summer, we swim and paddleboard. In a few places you could even see through the ice to the sand and rocks below, like a glass bottom boat.

Then one day we got a bit more snow to smooth it over and someone, somewhere, decided it was worth the risk — suddenly the lake around us filled up with ice fishing huts.