Cottage Life's "ice-out" contest

The cracks and pops along the shoreline are music to a summer cottager's ears. But when will the ice be out for good? Enter your prediction in our ice-out contest. 

We're watching three Ontario cottage- country lakes with as much anticipation as you are!

The winners are:

Prize for exact guess: Jamie Maxwell for his guess of Head Lake ice-out on April 20. Jamie wins a $100 gift basket from Cottage Life.

The following people also had exact guesses and will receive a pair of tickets to The Fall Cottage Life Show:
Deborah Hermanns, Ricki Grushcow, Bev Cameron, Mart Kaarmann, Deb Whibley, and Steve Joyce.

 

Click on the lake name to view a local webcam.

  1. Head Lake, Haliburton
    Courtesy of Halcom Communications

    April 20, 2008: Ice is out as of overnight on Sunday. The high temperature and wind moved the ice around till it broke up. Sunday morning it was all gone but traces in a bay. 25-degrees Celcius in Haliburton over the weekend certainly sped things along.

    April 16, 2008: Well it's tough to call with this unusually warm weather, the lake is rising very fast as the snow is melting and moving into the lake. This is causing it to move around and breakup faster than we would have guessed. I would have thought it would be out around May 10th but if this weather keeps up and we get rain it could be as soon as one week.
    Russ Hemphill, Halcom Communications

  2. Lake of the Woods , Kenora (set the camera to look towards Coney Island)
    Courtesy of the Best Western Lakeside Inn

    April 23, 2008: It's official - the ice is out in Lake of the Woods in Kenora. While other parts of the lake are still frozen, we saw a boat go by today.

    April 16, 2008: The ice is slowly coming off the lake with all the nice weather we are having here. There is still chunks floating around and no boats on the water yet!! We usually see boats in the water at the end of this month.
    Laurene Manson-Sillery, Executive Assistant, Kenora & District Chamber of Commerce

  3. Bala Bay on Lake Muskoka, Bala
    Courtesy of The KEE

    April 17, 2008: It's official - the ice is out as of noon today! Here comes summer! (Winners will be contacted directly and posted here).

    April 16, 2008: The ice by the KEE is still in the Bay. The large part of Bala Bay is almost ice free. All the smaller Bays off the big area are still covered. I expect it will be out for the most part by the end of the weekend. The temp is 15C so this should not go on much longer. We have had over 18 feet of snow this winter or over 218 inches. Worst since 1942/43.
    Mark Gidley, Gidley Real Estate, Bala

 

Our criteria for ice-out

This is the day that the majority of the ice is gone, a boat could pass through, and there's a glimpse of summer fun in the lake's reflection. Our local ice-spotter will have the final say.

Watch for the return of this contest in 2009.