History of outages

The following are the known outages of power from Sept, 2008 to present:
Sept. 4, 08 before midnight to 2 pm next day
Dec. 24, 08, 8:45 pm to 2:30 pm next day
Dec. 28, 08, 10 am to noon, and 1 pm to 4 pm
April 25, 09 evening to 4 pm next day
May 14, 09, 3 pm to 4 pm, and 4:20 pm to 8:15 pm
Sept. 27, 09 planned outage 6 am to 2 pm
Oct. 31, 09, 5:15 am to 7 am
Dec. 26, 09, 1 pm to 2:45 pm
Dec. 29, 09, 6 pm to 8:05 pm

Power out

Tuesday Dec. 29: power out to 1315 customers at 6 pm. Restored power at 8:05 pm. Last power outage was for only 12 customers.

Dec.27, 4 pm

Road is well plowed onto the island. Fallen trees removed.

Dec. 26, 4:30 pm

Two vehicles made it to the island. Good driving and great vehicles.

Dec. 26. 3 pm

Power out around 1 pm. Phoned in 1-800-434-1235. Automated message recognizes address of call. Live operator came on and stated about 12 customers on this particular outage and gives about 2 hours for a crew to solve the problem. Power established at 2:30 pm. As usual, hydro workers are the best! Still snowing.

Dec.26, 1 pm

Too much slush on the road for traction. One vehicle unable to make it back up mill hill. Best to find another way in if you plan on visiting the cottage. The road 150 metres before the south end of new road is extremely difficult and vehicle could slide to the east into the beaver pond if not careful.

Dec. 26, 10:30 am

Road is passable from mill hill to top of Maple Hill. Only one small branch over the road. Rain and snow alternating.

Dec. 26, 8 am

Trees are covered in ice and limbs are sagging. A light freezing rain is falling. Lights flickered at 7 am but are still on. Mill hill is probably a nightmare. More photos will be posted this morning. Chainsaws are probably a good decision if attempting passage.

From the causeway

Dec. 25 has warm temperature. Rink ice is slightly soft, good for smoothing the surface. Slush appearing under the snow on the lake in some places.

Ice Fishing Dec. 25

District 15 has limited fishing on Dec. 25.
Yellow Perch open all year.
The following start on Jan. 1, Walleye, Northern Pike, and some trout species.

Ice fishing Dec. 25, depth 10 feet, 2 holes, 2 inches snow cover, -3 deg. C, one hour fishing. ZERO FISH!

Dec. 24, road update

At 4 pm today, nothing has changed since posting Dec. 16. Getting up Maple Hill might be a problem. But getting down to the island from the top of Maple Hill looks good if you stay on the road with 4 wheel drive.

The rink is coming along. Kids should like it. We're trying to give it a flood every day to get it in shape.

Fire

At -15 deg C the flooding hose freezes solid! A fire and changing seat make skating slightly better than sitting in the snow. Ice is bumpy, but good to go.

First flooding of rink

Dec. 21, granular ice swept and flooded. Any ideas about maintaining a lake rink?

Guest and Africa Trail

Noon Dec. 21, 2009

Maple Hill

10 a.m. Dec. 21.

Ice Rink

Rink established south of causeway. 95' x 50 '. Flooding will be attempted.

Ice thickness Dec. 19

Ice thickness 150 metres south of causeway 6 3/8 ". No snowmachines seen on lake up to noon.

Ice thickness Dec. 19, 09

Temperature at 7 am is -25 deg. C. Ice thickness 10 metres south of the causeway is 7 inches.

Dec. 16, 2009

The cottage road from the public road (always plowed) to the top of Maple Hill is in great shape. But, from Maple down to the island it might be possible to make it downhill, but probably tire chains are needed to make it back up the hill (a guess). About 6 inches of snow have added to the road.

Lake is completely covered with snow, but no traffic on the surface.

Sunday Dec. 13, 2009

The incline south of the clearing (on the new road) stopped a vehicle from going north. It is difficult to turn around on the narrow road, as you can see from the struggle with the snow.

Saturday Dec. 12, 2009

Clarke Road from bottom of Maple Hill to the southern group of cottages is plowed. Guest Road is unplowed. East Bay Road (Tusk) is plowed.

Dec. 11, 2009

Road plowed to the middle of the island as of 9 pm Dec. 11. A few difficult areas on the road, especially the incline south of the clearing. East Bay road not plowed.

Dec. 11, 2009

Dec. 11. Cottage road is plowed to top of Maple Hill as of 2 p.m. Fifteen inches of snow on the ground.

Dec. 10, 2009

Ten inches of snow on the cottage road. Both the East Bay and the road to the island are unplowed as of 4 pm Dec. 10.

Dec. 7, 2009

View from island to Elephant Lake Lodge, Dec. 7, 2009. A few patches of water but most of thin ice is snow covered. Road has 1.5 inches of snow cover.

December 5, 2009

Skim ice can be seen extending out into lake.

December 5, 2009

Skim ice forming along lake shore and extending out about 150 metres.

December 5, 2009

Saturday Dec. 5, 2009. About 1/2 inch of snow covers road.

Nov. 30, 2009

Nov. 30, 2009. Light dusting of snow on parts of the road. No heron in the past 4 days. No ice along lake shore.

Road condition

Nov. 23, 2009. Water temperature in the lake is 39 deg. F. Heron still in the bay. Rifle hunting season is over. Bow hunting until mid December.

Developing potholes

Nov. 23, 2009. Certain wet parts of road are producing potholes.

Tree down 4 pm Nov. 20 at bottom of mill hill. But, there is room to drive around (and over) the tapered top.

Moderate rain for the past day and a half. A few muddy ruts.

Nov. 14, 2009

Nov. 14, 2009

Nov. 14, 2009

Nov. 14, 2009

Here are some of the rougher spots along the road.

Nov. 5, 2009

Two inches of snow during the night. It melted away in 1 day. Hunter along the road this week and next week. Best to wear protective colours.

Oct. 31, 2009

Oct. 31, 2009

Oct. 31, 2009

Oct. 31, 2009

Road Oct. 31

Halloween

Power out 5 to 7 am on Halloween morning. Heavy rains and winds the last few days. Here are a few areas of the road that are showing signs of erosion. But, the road is still in good shape.

Snow!

First snow on the ground Oct 13. New road north of clearing has soft shoulders. Don't challenge the strength of the shoulders.

New culvert

Terry installed a new plastic culvert on the September upgrade of the new road. It is about 70 yards north of the clearing on the new road.

Mon. Sept. 28, heavy rain

Heavy rain today had little effect on the road. Hunting road (on right of photo above) did not washout travelled road.

Planned power outage over

Power out at 6 am and restored at 2 pm Sunday Sept. 27, 2009.

North Tusk lowlands

During the summer '09, beaver(s) were blocking this culvert almost on a daily basis, causing the road to flood. Several people opened the culvert with a shovel as they passed. In the past two weeks there has been no plugs. It seems the beavers who occupied their home in the upper left of the photo have moved on. Someone had a black and yellow rope in the pond, attached to the shore. Perhaps a beaver trap?

Fresh gravel

As of noon Friday Sept. 25, there is gravel from the north end of the new road to the clearing. Shoulders may be soft. Big improvement.

Wide ditches

Wide travelling.

Wide ditches

Sept. 23/09

new road work Sept. 2009

Tne new road from the north end to the clearning has been elevated and widened. The first 100 yards has a layer of gravel.

Maple hill Aug. 30/09

Early spring mud

This area is just south of the new road and is very muddy in the early spring. There were signs that a car struggled in this area and got stuck before turning around and retreating.

More road photos

Name road sections

It would be great if we could name essential parts of the cottage road. This would allow a better communication system and perhaps lead to more constructive solutions to solving water and beaver problems.

Early summer, past Tusk Rd.