At the nearby Coralville, Iowa reservoir, the Corps will often drop the water level after freeze up, slumping the ice onto the bottom. This gives several square miles of ice with topography. Undulating ice with rises and dropoffs, along with miles of narrow backwater channels, creat quite the recreational area. North into Minnesota, you can find hard drifts that pile up like dunes along the shore. They can actually support the boat and provide drop offs on the lee side into soft snow. Pressure ridges are anything but soft and I usually bottom out - kabam. I don't mind the yearly body work on the belly, but the lack of ground clearance prevents the boat from reaching its potential. I'll post results of testing "tall" chocks later in the season.
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