Eyes in the sky Tuesday show ice-out isn't far

Open water starts just north of Cabin 1, where the current is strongest

Ice is still solid from camp south to Trout Bay

Lots of open spots between camp and Pipestone Bay. Harriet Carlson photos

Looking south, Big Red is at top of photo

Hugh Carlson and his daughter Harriet flew over our camp yesterday and got these great aerial photographs showing a patch of open water in the narrows just north of camp.
Hugh was moving his planes from the ice to Chukuni River in preparation for the upcoming season.
We are often some of Viking Outposts first customers as they fly us from the open water at the river over the ice in the main part of the lake to Bow Narrows Camp.
I hope to do that very thing next week, along with Nicholas, one of our staffers, and Cork, the dog. I've got a couple of things I would like to do even before Brenda and the rest of the staff arrive.
By next Monday I would imagine all of the narrows north to Pipestone Bay will be clear and probably Middle and Sadler Bays as well.
You can see from Harriet's great shots that the ice in those places is sick-looking. Four or five days of sunshine and, after a couple of days, no freezing temperatures overnight will do it in.
The rest of the lake probably won't be far behind. May 8 is a good guess.
We sure thank Hugh, Harriet, Enid and Viking Outposts for taking the time to check out our camp.
We're so fortunate to have such good friends and to have the location that we do. The current in the narrows means our location is the second spot in the lake to be ice-free each year. The first is the Chukuni River, the outlet of Red Lake, right at town.
Our great spot has always let us get into camp by the opening of fishing season, even when the opener was early and ice-out was late. (That's not the case this year. Fishing season doesn't start until May 21.)
We would prefer to always boat-in of course. It's cheaper that way, but our ability to get into camp by floatplane early in the season is a godsend. 
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