A flight over Rainy Lake Friday shows open water

The red and white Aviat Husky airplane buzzed loudly as its wheels left the runway at Einarson Flying Service Friday morning.

Pilot Jim Hummel, who also serves as Voyageurs National Park’s chief of operations, directed the plane east for a look at the ice conditions on area lakes. As ground temperatures hovered around 7 above zero, the outside temperature was recorded at 1 below after the plane achieved full flight, Hummel reported.

The cool outside temperatures reacted with the heat and moisture from the breath of the plane’s pilot and passenger frosting the inside windows of the plane. Brushing the frost away gave way to chilling views of open water and ice.

Conditions likely changed over the weekend, when temperatures dropped to at least 15 below zero. But area officials continue to warn that conditions are not yet safe for ice travel.

On Friday, some lakes appeared to have a “frosted window” effect, Hummel described, noting that the ice had formed over Thursday night and Friday morning.

“It’s just not safe to operate on the ice,” Hummel said. “It’s deceptively attractive new ice.”

At one point in the flight, Hummel dropped altitude to get a better look at the surface. “I see snowmobile tracks going onto the ice, but I don’t see them coming off,” he explained. “That makes me nervous.”

He pulled the plane higher after locating tracks leaving the ice.

The flight began with a fly over Rainy Lake’s frozen-over Black Bay, and heading toward Lake Kabetogama. In the distance just a portion of Rainy Lake was covered with ice.

But very new ice — the deceptively attractive kind — was present from Ranier to American Narrows, Hummel noted.

The plane flew over a four-wheeler pulling a portable fish house on Tom Cod Bay of Lake Kabetogama. That area has been frozen for a while, Hummel said.

“It’s probably OK, but we don’t recommend going out yet,” he said. “We know folks are spearing Tom Cod, and Irwin, and Duck bays on the east end of the Kabetogama resort area. But we’re not going on the ice.”

After the flight, Hummel reported that VNP staff checking ice conditions found just 2 inches in front of the Ash River Visitor Center. “It’s still spotty,” he said of the conditions.

From Kabetogama, the flight headed to Namakan Lake, which showed ice from Lake Kabetogama to an area adjacent to Kubel Island and Namakan Island. Open water was visible east of those islands.

Crane Lake was completely iced over, including King William Narrows and the southern half of Sand Point Lake, including Grassy Bay.

As the plane headed east over King William Narrows, five wolves ran west along the narrow strip of ice. Hummel circled and came back for another look dropping the plane lower. The animals crossed what appeared to be a break in the ice, but the crack apparently was solid enough to support them. They headed toward the shoreline and disappeared into the trees.

A frozen and snow-covered Ash River appeared as a white ribbon winding through the black and green trees.

Kettle Falls, as is usual at this time of year, is free of ice except along some areas of shoreline.

As the plane turned and headed west, the east end of Rainy Lake — from Saginaw Bay — appeared free of ice.

The interior lakes of Voyageurs National Park are frozen over, except for Mukooda, which was nearly iced over.

“We know the ice is only a week old,” Hummel said Friday. “The temperatures have not been cold enough to make good ice. Temperatures of 20-30 mixed with snow flurries makes terrible ice. It’s full of air, crusty and no load-bearing quality.”

In many places, ribbons of darkness cut through the white snow and ice, signifying where pressure ridges and cracks had allowed water to seep through.

“It shows the instability,” Hummel said of the dark ribbons.