Round Lake had Smoke on the Water last Fri. I was in it!

[Quetzalcoatl]

I (Quetzalcoatl) completed my goal of getting back to Round Lake before it Freezes over.

As I drove East of Albert Lea, I saw a fairly big pond (almost a lake) completely ice over..oops!!

I thought, maybe I'm making a futile trip? I just kept going,,,(ocassional comtemplating) taking a detour and

changing plans to sail in Fairmont, where the river runs throught the chain of lakes and likely to be ice free! But, noooo

I'm bound for Round Lake.

When I got to the East launch ramp,,,the wind was howeling (I almost got pushed over by the gusts blowing at 40 something mph) but

the water wasn't moving!!!! Rats! I'm iced in!!! I got down to the shore and could see that out in the middle of the lake,,,there WERE big whitecaps and

rolling waves. I thought well,,,maybe I'll drive around the south end of Lake...and then head back up other side and go home. As I drove past the South
end of Lake I saw a gravel Road with a sign that said "Dead End." Well, If this road has it's Dead End at the Lake,,,I'm in!!

I Drove down the Dead End and it had a launch ramp. And An orange metalic sign stating that this is where they pump in air into the lake in order

to avoid Winter fishkill. Here the ice was all "Margarita ice" and some good size "ice Plates" floating in the Margarita Ice but only about 20 ft. out. I thought, Maybe to sail, or not to sail,,, "It is already 2:00 PM." I decided to at least rig my Ezzy 5.2 Panther, and during this time the wind got stronger and pushed all that Ice up onto the shore. Just in a matter of 25 minutes,,,the situation went from, "Ah, I don't know, those Ice plates look nasty to Yeah, all Ice free water!" I had a Booming time! I sailed for one hour,,,wind was so strong I blew every gybe except one. But was fun!
I called it quits when I made the mistake to gype (which I blew) in front of that long band of Margarita ice on the East side of lake and my right foot froze up due to such close proximity to that Margarita ice.
My foot felt like a club foot. This in spite of having 6 mm. thickness of neoprene booties.
Once on shore and walking around my foot sensation came back to normal.
I wound have stayed another 30 minutes if I hadn't gotten foot stuck in that Margarita ice. My equipment was: 103 liter F2 board and Ezzy 5.2 Panther
sail and when there smoke on the water,,,(when the major gusts blew the white tuffs off the white caped waves) I would feel a bit over powered, but there was never a "Lull Moment!" And what this really means that I never (not once) schlogged ever! It was just pure fast planing bliss!

THIS was WORTH it!

Quetzalcoatl out.