Rising Fast

This first photo was taken on Friday, April 19.

The second was taken on Saturday.

And here we are today, on Sunday.
The Lake has come up well over two feet in that time.  Since Lake of Bays has over 330 feet of shoreline, that means that one heck of a whack of water arrived in the Lake during the past two days.  One heck of a whack (that would be the technical term)

Now the observant among you will have noticed a few things. Firstly, the water is lapping over the docks.  That means that the decking will start to lift, particularly if there is any wave action.  Wood prefers to float, so if it can detach itself from the dock base and get up on top of the water, it will be happier.  We, on the other hand, will not be happier.  To disuade it, we have to weight down the dock.




The fastest way to do this is to put empty barrels out there, and bail them full of
water.

The barrels are easy to manoeuvre out onto the docks, and easy to remove when no longer needed.


The bailing process is tedious -- you get wet. There's no way around that.   




The observant among you will have also noticed that there is still ice on the lake, so the bailers get not only wet but cold.  Dave and Carol are made of sturdy stuff...

Some of that ice is still thick enough it will support a person's weight.  We don't suggest you try this out. Even this close to shore, Dave would have become quite soggy!



The shore ice is more fragile now -- as Carol demonstrates here.  But this is the thing about ice -- while it has no vertical strength when it is softening prior to break-up, it has a lot of horizontal strength.  What this means is that if you press down on it, it will break. Often easily.  But if you push it sideways it will not.   So when the ice breaks away from the shorelines and the wind begins to stir, the ice will start to move.  When it reaches an object, it will just push that object out of the way.  If the ice pushes on something solid -- a granite shoreline, say... or a strongly built crib under a dock, it will pile up against it.  But if it pushes on something less firm -- say the decking along the top of that dock crib, or a boathouse structure, it will just keep pushing until the structure. moves. All those folks who ran ice-aways on their docks and put up fancy strobe lights to annoy the neighbours are going to discover that their efforts have been not very helpful if the ice decides to march against their building with the water this high.

There is plenty of ice out there to support a pair of Canada geese.  Not necessarily enough to support a dog in hot pursuit, so it is important to keep dogs close to you, and on shore.   Luckily, Taffy has learned a thing or two about ice water, and has decided that it is not something to be desired.


The geese were quite taken with the sight of the docks being covered up with barrels, and kept circling for a closer look.

"I don't have to go out there, do I?" Taffy asks Carol

The only way to tell where the dock is -- look for the
barrels. And Dave. No, although he is awesome, he
does not walk on water...  :)