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N is for No Ice on Lake George

© Gary W. Taylor

This has been a very strange winter. We seem to be getting waves of cold weather followed by warm spells. There has been very little snow, and very little ice to be found on Lake George. Now that it is February, Lake George should be enjoying its on-the-ice Winter Carnival, which I wrote about last year in my W is for Winter Carnival.

Everyone wondered, would there be a carnival this year? But winter, and the Carnival go on! At first there was talk of getting one of the local Native American groups to perform an ice dance. But instead, hopeful residents dumped buckets of ice cubes into the lake to encourage it to freeze. The carnival loomed - and no ice!! So, organizers of the event regrouped and planned some on-land events and prayed for cold and ice.

This year's carnival opened with a water skiing show on January 28! That's right - water skiing. It was either the latest or the earliest water skiing ever done on the lake, depending on how you look at it. On the cold, sunny morning of January 28, with no ice anywhere, some local skiers donned wetsuits and put on a barefoot water ski show for the spectators. What a sight!

Another non-traditional event was the cruise taken by the Lake George Steamboat Company's Mohican round trip from Lake George Village to Ticonderoga at the other end of the 32 mile lake. The Mohican makes that trip daily in the summer months, but the trip is almost never possible in February due to the ice. But not this year! The Mohican had clear sailing and enjoyed cheers and waves from people they surprised along the shore!

As the month wears on, tiny bits of ice have developed along the shoreline, but not enough to sustain some of the well-known carnival attractions. The on-ice car races were cancelled, and the motorcycle races have been moved to the final week of the carnival in hopes that some ice will form by then. But organizers have created new events. Last weekend the traditional dog sled pulls were replaced by "People Pulls" where teams of runners took the place of the dogs and pulled the dog sleds across land. A Poker Run foot race was also introduced. Polar golf and softball are also scheduled.

Of course, some of the traditional events continue. The famous Polar Plunge takes place each weekend day at 3 p.m. Die-hards can jump off the pier at Shepard Park Beach. There may be no ice - but the water is still plenty cold! And there are always fireworks on Saturday night - you don't need ice for those.

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