UPDATE: January Ice Sailing Plans During Campout

We’ve had some reports that the ice on Lake Geneva may not be good for ice sailing.  We learned Thursday that the local club drove four-wheelers out onto the lake and then took a couple of ice boats out, too.  They ended up having races on the lake on Wednesday afternoon.  They launched from Williams Bay on the North end of the lake, not on the east side nearest our campsites at Big Foot Beach. 
 

At this point our plan is to:
1) Check the ice right in front of the campground when we get there.  If it is good, and reasonably clear of snow, it is the easiest option.
2) If we learn from the club or determine ourselves that the ice is not good by the camp, we will drive to Lake Como.  It is a very shallow lake and probably freezes even quicker that Grayslake.  However, there could be too much snow/rough ice.
3) If those two fail us, we will check Williams Bay on the North end.  Both Lake Como and Williams Bay are probably only 15 minutes from our camp.
4) If all of the ice is bad/too snowy, we will fall back to plan B which is to build ice shelters and perhaps tour the Yerkes Observatory near Williams Bay. 
 
Mr. Timmins and Mr. Hoffman will explore these first three options upon arrival while the scouts are setting up camp.  Ideally by the time they have camp set up, we will have an area of Lake Geneva marked off with cones for use and the boats ready to go.  If not, we will travel to the other sites to assess the ice.  In any case, the overarching requirement is Safety First.