This was a great February week – lots of snow and seasonable weather capped by snow squalls towards the end of the week.
Sunday, February 11th, 2018 – taken on the beach near 13th street. Deep snow and hard to walk down the beach today.Sunday, February 11th, 2018 – Walking on the snowmobile tracks is the only game in town. The snow is too deep to walk on elsewhere. Looking west.Sunday, February 11th, 2018 – I’ve always admired this home at 16th and Shore Lane. Right at a walk out to the beach. Hope the owner doesn’t mind me posting this picture.Monday, February 12th, 2018 – Today was surreal. This picture looking straight out from the beach to the northwest. The lighting was such that I was “snow blind”. Everything was perfectly white. No shadows, and impossible to see any features. After a few blocks I gave up and retreated to walking down Shore Lane parallel to the beach. There was glare ice under two inches of fresh snow and it was just too treacherous to walk.Monday, February 12th, 2018 – this picture taken just a few seconds after the previous picture looking east. Nice to see blue sky! This picture also shows the challenge seeing features in the snow. No shadows. I kept getting surprised by what was under the snow and tripping on things.Tuesday, February 13th – Better today – the beach has been well travelled by snow machines. This picture taken east of 13th street at beach 2.Tuesday, February 13th, 2018 – A buried picnic table near the boardwalk just west of Beach OneTuesday, February 13th, 2018 – Looking west on a warm day from the beach one boardwalkTuesday, February 13th, 2018 – finally temperatures are above freezing. The snow is wet and easier to walk on. You can see open water in the distance looking toward Blue Mountain.Friday, February 16th, 2018 – looking east toward Beach one during my daily walk. Another day of snow squalls.Friday, February 16th, 2018 – Look northwest towards the bay. The ice is frozen as far as the eye can see (not very far!)Friday, February 16, 2018 – looking across Georgian Bay from the beach near 13th street during a lull in the snow. Definitely more ice today.Friday, February 16, 2018 -Looking north in the face of more snow.Saturday, February 17, 2018 – I don’t mean to come off like somebody’s mother, but I was distressed to see people so far out on the ice today. This was taken with a telephoto lense while I stood on ice berms out from shore. This is supremely dangerous. I fear these people have no idea. You can see the open water in the distance. Yesterday the ice was frozen. South winds and warm temperatures are pushing kilometer scale chunks of ice to the north. There is no way these people can be saved if they fall through the ice. Please don’t even think about walking out on the ice like this. I watched them come in and I feel they dodged a bullet.Saturday, February 17th, 2018 – Looking northwest from the boardwalk at Beach One toward Blue Mountain. I had a nice conversation with the folks you see out on the ice advising them not to go out past the berms. They were new to the area and thought the lake started past the berms until I explained how they are created by winds and wave action.Saturday, February 17, 2018 – This is a first – a seriously good skater skating all the way from Beach 3 to Beach 1. After a few days of above freezing temperatures, parts of the beach are like a rink – wish I’d taken video. I’d be walking out where he is skating, but it is glare ice and hard to walk on.
