McHenry County Blog

Ice on Crystal Lake was looking rotten as I drove past the Main Beach, so I decided to take a closer look at what looked like open water about a third of the way down the lake.

I drove to Gate 15 and saw open water.

The edge of the retreating ice was at Gate 7 Beach at the Gate 9 side.

As I looked out, I noticed the sea gulls first.

It wasn't too many years ago when Crystal Lake did not have any seagulls.

It was snowing.

Then I noticed a pier caught in the ice flow.

And, to its right, a raft.

So, instead of calling “Lost and Found,” the owners should look at the eastern edge of the lake.

Their missing equipment probably is near the Crystal Lake Park District's Main Beach by now.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Ice, Ice Flow, Lakewood, Lost and Found, Main Beach, Pier, Raft

On the way to Woodstock, I drove past the west end of Crystal Lake on Wednesday.

I saw a family out on the ice whose picture I thought you might enjoy.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Family, Ice, West End

Andy Warhol predicted everyone would get 15 minutes of fame.

I got 15 seconds, maybe less, as the picture you see was flashed on the Channel Five 10 O'clock News screen by Brant Miller after his weather report.

While me name and hometown were in the upper left hand corner of the television screen, I'm sure that most people were looking at the golfers on the water covered Crystal Lake ice last Sunday.

The three photos were shown. All were of ice.

Labels: Brant Miller, Crystal Lake Park District, Doc Haznow, Golf, Ice, WMAQ

Driving down Route 14 from Deep Cut Road after leaving BSA Camp Lakota, it was like being in a modern Narnia with the White Witch in control.

The trees were covered with ice.

The sun was shining brightly.

After we passed the place with the April 21, 1967, tornado crossed the highway, I rolled down the window and started taking pictures.

This was one of the better ones.

That’s how cold it was right after my son decided not to zip on the bottoms of his convertible pants.

Labels: Camp Lakota, Ice, Message of the Day, Narnia, Route 14, Tornado, White Witch

This water is turning back into ice.

After taking my son to school this morning, I decided to see if Crystal Lake were frozen.

I knew it was at the outlet to Cress Creek, so I drove to the Gate 13 Beach.

You can see that the ice is creeping out into the lake but only a couple of scores of feet from shore so far.

And it’s not thick enough to set up the hockey rink along the edge of the lake yet.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Ice, Message of the Day, Water

It’s open water on Crystal Lake.

Yesterday I noticed that most of the ice was gone.

This is the second year in a row in which a warm January has led to the ice melting.

After a low overflow during a dry fall, December’s snow and January’s rain has resulted in a lot of water pouring over the outlet.


Cress Creek is broad again.


I took some photos this morning on the way home from taking my son to South School.

Can you see why people love this neighborhood?

Labels: Cress Creek, Crystal Lake, Crystal Lake Outlet, Ice

And, in keeping with my recent icy “Messages of the Day,” this is one on ice.

A fisherman’s shack, actually two, on the West End of Crystal Lake.

Even though the Crystal Lake Park District sign near the ice cleared for skating at West Beach says,

Labels: Crystal Lake, Ice, Ice Fishing, Shack, West End

More ice.

I was so excited when I looked out the back door this morning.

The sun was shining brightly through the twigs that were covered with ice.

So I took a picture.

Then, I took another photo.

When I put them on the computer, they did not come out nearly as beautiful as what I saw.

I ran them past my son.

Number one or number two.

I did it a couple of time.

“I like both,” he told his color blind Dad.

So, you get both.

Labels: Ice, Message of the Day, Trees

And, I’m not talking about Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

That would be capitalized.

This is ice on trees at Crystal Lake’s Main Beach near the outlet.

The ice on the smaller tree twigs was even more beautiful today.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Ice, Main Beach, Tree

The last of the ice that covered Crystal Lake from February until now.

Less of the sand on the land.

The heavy rain dealt a deathblow to the ice covering most of Crystal Lake.

All of the ice that is left is at the edge of the sand at the Main Beach.

The rain was so heavy that there was obvious erosion of the sand at the Main Beach.

The only result can be a more shallow swimming area.

To see the details, you can click on both pictures.

Labels: Crystal Lake, Crystal Lake Park District, Erosion, Ice, Main Beach, Message of the Day

“Big boys toys” is what I thought of as I watched the driver of the Crystal Lake Park District sidewalk snowplow do wheelies after he had finished his part of clearing off the ice rink that was being created in front of the Main Beach House.

I wish I could have videoed it.

He seemed to be having so much fun.

But, all I had was a camera.

What you see is his snowplow turning in circles.

Labels: Crystal Lake Park District, Ice, Main Beach, Snowplow, Wheelies

Taking my 9-year old to school I noticed a plum of snow in front of Crystal Lake’s Main Beach.

I asked my son if he could see it.

“See what?” he asked.

“You must be sitting too low to see it,” I replied.

Intrigued, after I dropped him off, I parked at the Main Beach parking lot and went for a look.

The sign said "Ice Safe."

The "Not" was blocked.

Three machines were clearing off the snow.

There was the snow blower emitting its stream of white.

A snowplow about the right size to clean the sidewalk was there, too.

And, finally, a machine with a revolving brush.

There were trying to clean off the night’s snow and the snow that had blown from the over a mile of frozen expanse to the west onto the area where hockey is played after school and on weekends and where kids skate.

The three machine operators were methodical

It took a long time.

Another crew drove up in a pick-up truck.

They were assigned to pump water out from beneath the ice of Crystal Lake and spread it on top to make the surface smoother.

They unloaded the equipment first.

An auger.

A hose with a filter to be stuck down beneath the layer of frozen water through the hole that would be drilled by the auger.

A pump to pull the frigid water out of Crystal Lake.

Lengths of hose through which the water would be pumped to the frozen surface.

Pipe wrenches with which to tighten the connections between the hoses and the pump.

Lengths of hose.

And two buckets of water to prime the pump.

Boy, did the three young men have problems.

They couldn’t get the water to flow.

Two more buckets of hot water were carried from the Main Beach House to the back edge of the rink.

One young man got his work gloves wet and took them off to try to make the connection between the hose and the pump tighter. I was concerned that would result in frostbite.

It’s a wonder that they did not have rubberized, insulated gloves.

After the better part of an hour in what had to be the coldest job in Crystal Lake, they were told to take a break until the other three could finish clearing the snow off the rest of the skating area.

When they returned—much warmer, I imagine—they still could not get the cold water to run through the pump.

They straightened the hose.

They looked for kinks.

Still, no success.

Finally, one went for help.

A fourth man arrived.

No luck.

Finally, one of the snow removal machine operators drove over and joined the four.By the time the water started flowing, there were six offering gathered around the pump and hole in the ice.

Finally, the water started flowing.

I ran out of exposures and went to Sam’s Club to transfer my images to disks.

About an hour later I returned to take a picture of the finished product, but it didn’t look finished.

The lake surface was certainly not uniformly smooth when they began and it appeared they had left before the job could be completed.

Maybe it was because the nozzle wouldn’t work right.

Maybe they’ll be back with another on another cold morning.

Return to McHenry County Blog on Tuesday for "Wheelies on Ice."

Labels: Auger, Crystal Lake Park District, Hose, Ice, Main Beach, Pump, Snow Blower, Snow Plow