Saturday, May 3, a binocular view of Pelican Lake showed only ice piled on the south and east shores of Big Pelican Lake. This is one of the later dates for ice-out on Pelican.
Ice has gone out on Pelican as early as March 31 and as late as May 3. This year the prevailing winds seemed to be mostly from the north. There were no ice banks on the north shore of Halverson Bay, but the ice did pile up on Gooseberry Island.
Mary Rush, Sibley Lake, said the ice went out May 2. Many of the smaller lakes were free of ice earlier in the week.
On Monday, Bob Becker said the ice was "not quite out" on the south end of Trout Lake. This lake is one of the deeper lakes on the Whitefish Chain and usually one of the last to be ice-free.
The ice went out on Middle Cullen on May 1 and on Lower Cullen on May 2.
Tom Beaver said that last year he had his dock in on April 14. He did get his dock in the water this past weekend.
At Bertha Boatworks, the mechanics are out on Bertha Bay testing boats, but Lower Hay was still locked in as of Monday, May 5.
Jim Kendall, C&C Boatworks in Crosslake, said the ice was out on Daggett, Little Pine, Rush and Cross Lake this past weekend. Whitefish and Trout still had ice as of Monday. The latest they know of ice going out on the Whitefish Chain was May 13, in 1952. Kendall said the average date for ice-out is around April 21.
Gull Lake, as of Monday, still had ice in Hole in the Day Bay. That ice was gone by Tuesday.
Dock installers a couple weeks behind
Mark Van Essen, DH Docks in Nisswa, said they were about two weeks behind installing docks.
"Everybody is scrambling," he said. "The phone is ringing. You want to buy one, they all ring."
Van Essen said the new dock regulations are also causing the phone to ring, with lakeshore homeowners checking on what they can and cannot do. He said that until a lake is ice-free, it's not a good idea to put a dock in. The wind could shift and the ice could push and pile up a dock on shore.
WFS Waterfront Services in Crosslake puts in about 500 docks. As of Monday, they had 20 docks installed, said Julie Simard. Friday, May 2, was the first full day they had worked. She estimated they were about three-and-a-half weeks behind on installing docks.
It usually takes Norlake Dock about three weeks to get all the docks in. Monday was the first day they were "in the water."
