In 2016 on March 18th, the ice went out. Well, today there is probably over a foot and a half of ice if not two feet in most places. It hardly went above freezing today and a few places where there was a little bit of open water on the 17th had refrozen. Last week there were some very warm days, getting to 60 degrees for an hour or so but one night it never went below freezing. That changed the surface of the lake and it is actually very good skiing, absolutely no breaking trail, you just slide on the snowy “stuff”.
In a few places, there has been open water. This area is at the west end of Stamp Act and is often a place where there is open water.
In the big picture, below, the area is not very large and is easily avoided. You can easily ski around the places where the melting occurred but they are mostly around the rocks which absorb sunlight and melt the ice around them.
Looking from that spot toward Loon Island makes it look like mid-winter with no open areas at all. Ice out has a long way to go. Skiing down the south side of Stamp Act, there were no places where there had been any melting even with the southern exposure and rocky shore. Not much progress in ice out there.
At the sandbar at the SW end of Stamp Act, the winter water level shows the sand but there really isn’t much of a beach because the ice hasn’t melted.
Looking to Cate Island from the sandbar, the area that often doesn’t free did melt but today, the 18th, it was mostly frozen again.
Looks like the early ice out guesses won’t be winners.