Portland Outdoors - Ice Report 2012

ICE REPORT SKATE THE LAKE 8
Saturday Feb. 18, 2012 The oval is now closed for the season. Thanks to everyone who participated! Monday, February 14 2012, 5 p.m. Oval has been plowed and the skating continues to be excellent!!! Friday, February 3, 1 p.m. The ice conditions on the oval in Portland are amazing! Cracks and rough areas have been smoothed out and the ice is fast. Looking ahead to a great week of skating! TUESDAY JAN 31. NOON The oval has been resurfaced and will be plowed by mid afternoon today. While there are still some rough spots, skating is generally good. The skating may be poor due to weather on Wednesday however the oval will remain open and plowed. Next update will be Saturday early afternoon. SUNDAY JAN. 29 "The oval is open. Slightly rough and narrow." FRIDAY JAN. 27 11 a.m. Skate the Lake IT'S A GO. Crews will be working overnight as temperatures go down. On site registration is open for this afternoon between 2 and 6. There will be no practicing on the oval this afternoon. FRIDAY, JAN. 27 7 am After a great day of skating yesterday, we are closing the oval until 2 pm this afternoon so our ice crew has time to remove last night’s freezing rain. It’s still raining very slightly here now. That is to change to snow by noon. It looks like we have a –4 night ahead of us so everything will be fine for Saturday morning! See you on the Oval! John Bongers-President WEDNESDAY JAN. 25 NOON "Just got off the lake after an hour of skating! While the Oval will not open until Thursday morning at first light, the rest of the bay is skate-able though rough. The oval has smoothed out quite nicely but still needs tonight to finish freezing. Thursday should be a great day for practicing! Looking ahead to Saturday... if it turns out to be a challenging day, weather wise (which it very well may be), we may have to run the Olympia between races which will definitely cut into our race time. If this is the case we may not have time to hold all the races which means we will have to prioritize them. At this point I’m suggesting that we give priority to the 10 and 25k races. Please note that this will only occur IF we have to run the Olympia between races. The final decision cannot be made until Friday evening or Saturday morning. At this point the ice quality is great and it will take a fair bit of warm weather to change that!" TUESDAY JAN. 24 5 P.M. Oval still closed. Given the weather forecast it may open as soon as tomorrow. I’ll try to give an update at noon on Wednesday after I go for a skate. John Bongers. President Portland Outdoors MONDAY JAN. 23 5 P.M. REPORT #6 As expected the rain has resulted in the closure of the oval for now. On the bright side the rain is leveling the ice quite nicely!
SUNDAY JAN. 22 6 P.M. REPORT #5 The oval is open and in decent shape. There are still rough patches throughout the oval, however in speaking with the speed skaters that were out this afternoon these patches are not preventing them from having a good skate. Keep in mind that some cracks are starting to open up. The fishing hut that was parked in a dangerous position on the west corner is being moved. We had the power broom going for a couple of hours so the ice is quite a bit faster now. Watch for updates over the next couple of days The weather may force us to close the oval temporarily. Looking forward to seeing everyone on Saturday! FRIDAY JAN. 20, 2012 Report #4 "The oval is open for skating. Please remember that the ice is still rough in sections, the Oympia will be operating so give it room. See you the ice!! "	Jan 22, 2012 Jan 22, 2012
TUESDAY JAN. 19, 2012 Report #3 "The oval is really starting to look great thanks to our plow man Eric! We got the Olympia on today and did several rounds. The good news is that the Oval is set to be open for skating by Friday, mid afternoon! The ice will not be ideal yet especially around the EAST TURN so be careful. (and no night skating yet Sue!) Please keep in mind that due to our difficult start up conditions the Oval is narrow this year and probably cannot be made any wider due to the fact that the banks are frozen. This means that when we are running the Olympia skaters will have to give it room as it’s making its rounds. Thanks for your caution and understanding. Let the skating begin!! Thursday January 19th 5:30 pm"	Jan. 19, 2012 Jan 19, 2012

TUESDAY JAN. 17, 2012 Report #2 "Lots of rain here today. Still raining now at 8 p.m. The lake ice is still good but the surface is in need of a lot of work. We'll see what tomorrow brings. the local weather going forward looks promising," John Bongers, President Portland Outdoors. SUNDAY JAN. 15, 2012 Report #1 Oval preparations have started for the Big Rideau Lake Marathon in Portland! On Saturday the volunteer crew spent several hours clearing the heavy snow on the shallow bay. Currently there is almost 10” of good quality ice across the entire oval however the top water and slush prevented any further preparations. It was decided by the ice prep crew to wait a few days to allow the water to dissipate. After checking ice conditions on Sunday late afternoon it appears that the top water issue is beginning to solve itself quite nicely. We anticipate that we will be back on the ice as soon as Tuesday afternoon. Further updates will follow at that time! SUNDAY JAN. 8 2012. “We hope to have the oval open for skating by the January 18. Right now we have over 7 inches of good ice,” John Bongers President Portland Outdoors

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