Springs and thin ice on Caesar Pond

Now that the ice is thinning with warm weather, I feel it necessary to revisit a map that I made back in December, 2011 of the location of springs in Caesar Pond. These areas should be noted as the ice is thinner where water from springs wells up. These may not be all of the springs. Note the location of our house (labeled "Kasha's House".)

The pond is spring loaded, so to speak, and I wanted to map the springs that I saw. In order to do this, I had to be very cautious, because where there are springs, there is open water with very thin ice surrounding it. I tried to stay a maximum of 20 feet from shore, where possible. Unfortunately, I was not able to cross the north cove safely, and had to backtrack as you can see on the map. I traversed a total of 1.86 miles on the ice and had to go slowly in some places as I had to test the ice strength. Mind you, these are not all the springs in the pond, just the ones I could see, or know of. There are others located toward the middle as well. This is not something you want to do cavalierly…you must use caution.

I found one open water spring in the middle of the South Cove.

Note the dark colored and pithy ice surrounding the spring where there is open water.

It is a large spring, and you can tell where springs are by the darker colored ice that spreads out from the spring. The ice here is pithy and thin.

Now we go to the west side of the pond near the beaver lodge.

 There is one large spring between the lodge and the shoreline.

North end of pond perimeter.

From the west side of the pond, we now travel to the north end of the pond which is pockmarked with numerous springs.

North Cove spring # 1

This spring is located just in the open water outside of the north cove.

North cove spring # 1 is manhole cover sized!

North Cove spring # 2

North cove spring # 2 is located closer to the eastern shore, just outside the "entrance" to the north cove.

North Cove spring # 2

Here is a close-up of spring # 2.

This spring is just west of the tall pine tree in the south cove.

The other springs are located back into the boggy area of the north cove.

Drew drilled holes through the ice from shore toward the middle in Dec. 2011.

And, lastly, here is a photo to show you that the ice is usually thicker near shore and thinner as you go out toward the middle of the pond.