A good time to say "ice is never safe". We are finding thin ice in unexpected areas and ice S of Memorial island has not been investigated. Keeping in mind we found 3 inches of ice at diving rock and E Clay found 4 inches walking down the lake into Copelands we took a walk across the lake today from our dock straight across. 400-500 feet out on our side we got 5 inches of ice. Continuing E all holes came up dry meaning over 5 1/2 inches. (length of bit from drill to tip of the paddle bit, graduated wire hook to measure). Arriving on the east side, about 500 feet from shore we found a thickness of 3 1/4 inches. Continuing S from this hole towards Campbells point, we found 4" gradually increasing to dry holes. This was in ice which has been frozen since November 25th and S of the open area between Mazurs and Stephenson's, which froze over last Saturday. Continuing S to the "new" ice, which formed last Sunday, we were surprised to find dry holes to the W approach at Campbells point. After tea, the journey continued from Campbells point on a diagonal to the original trek back to our dock. En route we had dry holes till within about 400 feet of our dock where the thickness receded back to 5 inches. Lots of uneven cracks with flooding from the cracks out there which are weak areas.
