The markedly warm weather accelerated the loss of snow deep in the woods and the thinning of ice on the lake. The ice left Whaletail ( defined as 90% of ice off the lake ) on the afternoon of March 13th. This was the earliest in our 22 years on the lake. We suspect it is one of the earliest on record, as Lake Minnetonka, which is one mile to our east, had ice-out on March 16th, the earliest since 1878!
This last week sap flow slowed to less than one gallon of sap per tap per day. The quality of the syrup remains outstanding, but we are seeing more of the Dark Robust grade of syrup.