Frozen Access Sites

I did a little investigating today on the river from Divide all the way down to Glen and I’m glad I did. A couple friends of mine were going to float from Divide to Maidenrock tomorrow but that is out of the question. At the Maidenrock access there is just a narrow channel of open water in the middle of the river and there is no way you could get your boat out. Too make matters worse if one did not scout it out is that just a couple hundred feet below, the river is jammed and the flow is pretty swift there. Around the corner just above and below the Maidenrock Bridge the river is wide open with very little shelf ice on the banks. This is caused by warm water seeps coming from the banks along that stretch. The same thing occurs in the Dewey area where the river never freezes. Down river below Brown’s bridge where the frontage road crosses it is still froze in that slow pool. At the Glen Access I was surprised to see it still completely froze across as far as I could see down river. Going up river it is open all the way from Jerry Ck. to Divide with thick shelf ice in some areas. With this warmer weather this could and will change in a matter of a couple days. Just remember the old floaters motto “when in doubt scout”.