Was in Renfrew Sunday and decided to drive the extra hour to check the Access Road to Sec Lake (Access 20). Sec and its surrounding lakes have been ice free for at least 4-5 days now. No ice at all and the water level is surprisingly low for early Spring conditions.




Likewise McManus and likely Grand Lake as well, although I did not travel all the way to Achray. The access road up to the turn off to Sec is in great condition, no flooded areas, no washouts, no snow and no washboard effect. The 3 km stretch of road to Sec is navigable by 4x4 due the few small sections of snow remaining + a few downed large diameter branches (most of which I heaved off into the surrounding forest). Am heading in there with the kids and cousins for opening weekend.



By mid this week what's left of the snow on this road shall be gone.

Other critters taking advantage of the warm conditions today:






Many frog species in full chorus as well.

Thanks for the report there SM, great photos.

No surprise on the low water conditions. March down here in the city was a dry month.
Viewing the stats from the Algonquin Park weather station reveals shockingly less than half the amount of precip. from a year earlier in the month of March.

So far it is drier than last year. which is really starting to bother me, these guys at environment Canada were so wrong last year. They predicted(as did I), a hot and steamy summer.
It was quite the opposite, cool and wet.
Earlier this year, they predicted a dry and cool april/may period. Now I've gone over there updated predictions and they have done an about face, predicting above average precip and temps!

What is really weird is that Algonquin got just under less than half the precip in March than it did one year ago in March of 2008.

I think both the old and new predictions are wrong. I predict(ok so mine could be wrong again too!), that it will be warmer than normal but drier than normal as well.

Precipitation in Algonquin Park Early 2008 in millimetres(mm)

Jan 2008 - 84.1mm
Feb 2008 - 64.5mm
March 2008 - 95.9mm
April 2008 117.3mm ( in the last 5 days of April over 30mm of precip fell)


2009

Jan. 2009 56.2mm
Feb.2009 66.3mm
March 2009 46mm
April 2009 66.2mm ( by this time last year[April 20, 2008], there was over 75mm of precip that had fallen).

A much drier late winter and early spring season so far.







Mark Rubino
Mark's Algonquin Park Sampler - Blog
Mark's Algonquin Park Sampler

http://www.ABRweb.ca .. Algonquin Backcountry Recreationalists - Caring for Algonquin's Backcountry

Wow, love those critter photos.

That's the other thing I've been most fortunate in seeing on just about every trip into Algonquin: snakes. In fact, Algonquin is the only place I ever get to see snakes any more.

My resident chipmunk seems to have abandoned me, ever since the birdseed supply ended.


Thanks for posting. A much more optimistic view than the Smoke Lake report. LOL




Barbara

Hey SM

A photo speeks a thousand words! While I have no idea how the summer weather will end up being, your photos and the forcast for the weekend are great indicators of me being on Rose Island over the mainland on Friday!

Thanks for sharing.

Jeff P
http://algonquincanoeing.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the pics


SBA

hey, no problem on the photos, tks.

There were a few butterflies as well (I think they were butterflies) and early spring wildflowers. Hopefully many of you get up to the park this weekend to enjoy the gloriously warm and sunny weather that's being forecasted.

that's awesome - I can't wait to get back to the park for a paddle

Laurie
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