Official 2019-2020 Ice In Thread

[Hillcountry]

Originally Posted by Mink Islander

I drove up to check out the ice this morning over by Cattle Landing, Meredith Neck. While there was a decent amount of ice not far from shore (10 inches with 2-3 slush ice and the rest solid black ice). But... closer to the pinch point between Bear Island and Meredith Neck where the snow was blown off only had 4 inches of black ice. Plenty to hold a person, not enough for me to venture through Cattle Landing given the variability of ice through there.

Another unusual winter folks. Be very cautious on the lake.

So, what is Cattle Landing used for anyway...I finally looked it up on Google Earth and there seems to be a pretty good sized parking lot with one dock...
Is this something for Meredith residents only? Is there a boat ramp?
Thanks in advance!

[fatlazyless]

Town of Meredith's Cattle Landing has a one acre, dirt parking lot and a concrete floating dock across the road, there. As of today, both the ice eaters are working good and there's a large circle of open water surrounding the town dock.

There is no launch ramp for backing a boat on a boat trailer into the water. What is there is a 60" opening in the blue wood fence atop the smooth grassy embankment, very close to the paved Cattle Landing Rd that allows for unloading and hand carrying a kayak/canoe/paddle board/small row boat/rowing skull to the lake. Two people can carry a canoe down the aluminum staircase, and onto the concrete floating dock for launching. One person can drag or carry a kayak down the 20' long, smooth grassy embankment.

No boat trailer parking, or any type of trailer is allowed in the Cattle Landing parking lot, as indicated by a sign, and the police will enforce this. A small boat dolly that fits through the 60" opening could definitely launch a Laser style sailboat rolled in from the parking lot, and the immediately nearby, big water area to the right or south and out onto Lake Winnipesaukee is like a totally totally totally excellent area for sailing a 12-14' sailboat.

Any restrictions on who may use it? Not really, no restrictions; is a great spot for launching a kayak into the waters of the big lake with the very flat, smooth, shallow sandy bottom and very small sandy beach at the bottom of the embankment, free of rocks, good for getting in/out of a kayak. The Meredith Police are always patrolling this residential area and always take a good look around as they slowly pass on by.

Cattle Landing town dock has been in use for something like 150(?) years, or longer, and get's its' Cattle Landing name because it was once a holding area for cows that got boated across the narrow passage for grazing on nearby Bear Island.

In the past, people used to launch ice shanties through the 60" opening, down the smooth embankment, but that's probably no longer possible with all the ice eater, open water.

[fatlazyless]

Say-hey ..... is that a long slice of open water that has recently opened up or something on the Snake Eyes, Rattlesnake Cam, at about 4:45 on Saturday afternoon.

It sure enough looked like open water to me ...... but is a little difficult to say what with the low light and the shades of gray ..... tomorrow's daylight will tell?

Wait and see ...... I say ...... there is new open water on Snake Eyes, tomorrow morning!

...............

..... oopsie-doopsie ........ false alarm here ..... Sunday 7:10-am and Snake Eyes is not showing any open water ..... my bad?

..............

.... say-hey .... lookn again at about 10-am here and it now does look to be the same slice of open water has returned ... that open water slice is alive ... ???

[TheCaptain]

Walked onto the ice from Rattlesnake landing in West Alton just now with a drill and thickness gauge.... 5" about 10 yards off shore, turned into 4" about 20 yards off shore turned into 3" about 25 yards off shore.
Needless to say, we didn't walk any further. (For all above measurements, there was about 1" of junk, slushy ice on top with black ice underneath). No arctic chill this year, just average night time temperatures are responsible for what we have so far.
Stay safe!!!

[Mink Islander]

Attached is a snapshot from my camera facing north on Mink Island. Looks more like April than January.

I drove up Friday and got on the ice just west of the Cattle Landing parking lot near the first lakeside driveway. Out 100 yards there was a good 10 inches of ice, about 3 of it slush ice though. A few hundred yards further out where the snow had been blown off and it was glare ice, the thickness dropped to a meager 4 inches of all black ice. I opted not to press any further towards the narrows at Cattle Landing to the east since that area is notorious for expansion cracks and ice heaves. Ice thickness can vary a lot through there in a normal year.

I am already giving up on the fishing derby this year. No way we’ll recover from these warm temps by then. The next two weeks with the hockey tournament and the derby bring a lot of folks to the area. I just hope they get the message to be very cautious on the ice this year.