Early morning is usually quite peaceful on the Portage Canal near Dollar Bay. Jen Stout snapped a shot looking out from her home on two different days this past week. Her top shot was the first ice that coated the canal for December and then her second photo, a few days later showed early morning with just partial ice and partial water. Can you tell which is the ice and which is the water? I thought the ice was on the right in the photo and the water was on the left, closer to shore, but Jen said it was actually just the opposite. The ice is the smooth portion on the left and the rough portion on the right is the open water. Kind of an illusion.

Jen’s remaining photos and her accompanying video, show what happens in the spring and fall when the ice is really thin in the fall or weak in the spring and it gets really windy. It starts breaking up and creating layers of thin ice sliding over each other as they break away. She said you need to get there quick because the “crackling” ice usually doesn’t last very long. But is super fun to see and listen to.

The second photo is beautiful! Calm and serene!

Great video of the ice crackling - have never seen that happen in person. Looks like something the otters would enjoy!

Thanks Jen!

Otterly beautiful pix and video! Seems like
Springtime.

I wasn't present when my local Rock River made it's own "crackling" ice flows a couple years back. I can imagine though it made some pretty interesting sounds.

BTW, all that ice was pushed into a parking lot.
You can see the white painted stripes.

That is just cool. I remember one year, it was
well below zero, I stopped to take a few pics. The
noises the ice was making was unbelievable...you've
really got to experience that stuff...this is so
phenomenal!