Ice Out Time Lapse Video

Now that the ice is out, and the scurry of docks is over, we have time to process some of the videos we took.  It was an exciting exit this year for those great big chunks.  You saw my pictures last week of it all piling up on shore.  Most of that has melted away, with just small heaps left.  Today we have a strong northeast wind, stirring up the waters with huge waves. I watched them crash over the rocks at Diamond Willow cabin a little while ago.  Amazing what the wind can do.​

​Greg made a time-lapse video with our Go Pro that we want to share.  He set the camera on a tripod at the beach last Wednesday, and left it for several  hours.  ​He set the camera to take a photo every 30 seconds, and then compiled the 612 shots into this video.  If you watch closely (a bigger screen view helps), at about the 15-second mark, the ice starts to pile up on the point.  It was really something to see, and we recorded it with other cameras, too.  When we have those edited, we will post them as well.

Basically, what happened at that moment was the large, central mass of ice broke loose and began to move down to the east.  It was like the lake had turned into a river, and the edges of our large ice pile were being pushed higher by the moving mass.  In turn, it would crumble and fall from the top, in a slow-motion cascade.  We haven't seen anything quite like this before.  Shortly after it started, it stopped.  We surmised that the large sheet had hit an immoveable sheet down the lake.  The really good thing that it did was to start breaking it all up into smaller pieces, which ultimately led to a faster ice out.​ At that, it still seems like it took forever!

Time-lapse movie of ice going out on May 15. Watch for the main sheet of ice making a big run at the 15-second mark. Big hunks of ice begin to pile up on the shoreline. Final ice out date was May 17th. Video was recorded over a five-hour time period at Heston's Lodge.