I've been restless here in suburban Minnesota lately so yesterday I geared up for the cold and portaged my dads canoe down to White Bear Lake for a late season paddle. Temperatures have just dipped into the 20's finally, and ice is just now forming around the lake's perimeter.
For clothing, I had my 5mm wetsuit steamer on as a base, with dry bottoms and a spray top over it, thick wool socks with my neoprene boots, a winter hat and thinner neoprene paddling gloves. The portage was quick and I only had a 10-12 feet of ice to cross to open water, which ultimately broke as I walked over it.
I followed the contour of ice south and around Manitou Island as far as I could go, then retraced my path back. While I was out I had the water all to myself, though I found out later that when my brother walked down to the beach to look for me he spotted a stand-up paddle boarder paddling out near a newly exposed island.
(I used Google Earth to map my route, this older photo shows inaccurate ice coverage)
I went down again today to see what conditions looked like and saw significant more ice coverage. Surprisingly there was still accessible open water, but a slight chop and cold breeze kept me onshore with Tischer. I'm still hoping for one more paddling day before total freeze-up, and am excited for the supposedly coming snow accumulation-it will be a first to paddle in that!
Think Snow!!!
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