By Gary Lee
An epic winter storm is scheduled to hit the east coast sometime tomorrow…at least it got the news media talking about something other than deflated footballs.
If the big cities get as much snow as predicted in the computer models it could be crippling and even life threating for many folks.
We had more up and down weather this week with temperatures in the –20 range a couple nights and then up in the high 20s the next day—almost a 50 degree temperature change.
I had to check traps down the outlet of Limekiln Lake one of the days it was –22.
Up until that day I had been driving in to the leach field but the snow had gotten a tad too deep to do so.
I waited until later in the day when the temperature got up in the teens and there was no wind.
I followed a snowmobile track that led me to some fishermen at the far end of the lake.
One of them was way out on the lake on a snowmobile picking up tip-ups.
As I got closer he rushed in to the main spot and began shoving splake into a big paper bag.
One was a real monster. Then he went back out to pick up the rest of his tip-ups.
One of the other guys was done and we chatted some about the day’s fishing. He asked what I was doing.
When I told him he said I made pretty good time walking across the lake.
I asked how the fishing was. He said they didn’t get set up until about noon but from then until about 1:30 p.m. the flags were flying.
They caught nine fish, one about 30-inches that weighed about 10 pounds.
After 1:30 p.m. they only had a couple flags and no more fish. By then it was about 4 p.m. so they headed back to Herkimer with some fish for supper. They were off the ice at the boat launch before I got out of sight in the campsite.
There was another party fishing down at the private end of the lake but I don’t know what they got that day.
There was still only eight inches of ice on the lake as all that snow insulated it from freezing.
The Pond Hockey Tourna-ment went okay with plenty of ice, teams and spectators.
The weather wasn’t that bad either with daytime temperatures in the 20s and not much wind.
I went down to take a few pictures Saturday night. The wind had picked up which made it mighty cold.
The action under the lights was neat and I saw several goals scored. It seemed to be more of an offensive rather than defensive game.
I chatted with a few folks who seemed to be enjoying it despite the cold wind. I took some shots under the lights and then got out of there.
I went over to the boat launch and there were several vans and cars way down by the lake. Someone driving a van was trying to get out and after four tries finally made it to the road.
I picked up several beer cans. I’m sure the snow covered up many more as we got two inches overnight.
Someone could make a few bucks if they made some can deposit barrels to place around the rinks.
As I was leaving a party with a camper in the boat launch had run down their battery and needed a jump.
Luckily another party had cables and was assisting them, so I went home to look at my pictures, which came out pretty good.
I only stayed for one game as I was ready for a nap. I was out checking traps that morning and put on about five miles.
I went home for lunch and then put on a few more miles out back hare hunting with Jason Harter.
When I got out there Jason said he hadn’t seen a hare yet, though his dogs had been running quite a while.
We moved to a different location as there were tracks everywhere where the dogs had been running.
Once Jason went to this new spot the dogs were off and running. They made a big circle almost coming back to the house and then came back where we were.
Jason nailed that hare before it got to me, so he got one along with lots of music from his hounds.
While doing the duck count, Tom Barber and I did some walking to different lookouts along the lake shore.
They had some wet snow over that way that brought down many trees and branches.
You could see where the snow plows had just pushed the debris off the sides of the roads.
We didn’t get anything like that over this way but we’ve had plenty of wind that brought down many tree tops and branches.
If you are out and about and see a tree or some branches across a trail that you can easily move, do so and make it better for those coming through next.
One more snowy owl—just for the fun of it…but that’s another story. See ya.