Jane Chase came across 5 old photographs showing repairs being made to the dam back in the fall of 1993. I’ve scanned them and added them to the Chase Family Archive. Art Enos subsequently bought the dam in February of 1995. I recall when the work was being done, the mason Ron Bourassa was a friend of mine and I remember stopping by a few times to watch what was happening. One of the new photographs shows Steve Schlosser who was Ron’s tender on that job. The 5th & last photograph shows someone removing sand bags from the stream with a backhoe while dismantling the coffer dam that had been constructed at the narrow gauge railroad abutments. Some of those sand bags are still in the stream as can be seen in the photograph at left, taken by me in the Spring of 2012.
I’d like to thank Jane (again!) for providing these photographs and encourage anyone with old photographs taken on or around Clary Lake to please send them to me.
Recreation opportunities abound on Clary Lake this winter, apparently. While the rest of us were ice skating down in the west end of the lake, David Knight was out doing donuts on his riding lawn mower with his faithful companion Megabyte:
Comet Lovejoy is well placed for convenient, early evening viewing. It’s bright enough to be visible to the naked eye but I recommend at least binoculars to get a good view of it. The finder chart below shows the comet’s location on the evening of January 10th. If you can find Orion, you can find the comet. It’s moving fairly rapidly in a northerly direction and getting higher in the sky all the time. On the 17th, it will be just south of the Pleiades.
The ice skating on Clary Lake has been extraordinary this year, and a good many people have taken advantage of the fabulous conditions. This afternoon I was out skating and encountered 4 people from Waldoboro (at left) who’d heard about the excellent skating conditions on Clary and came by to see for themselves. They were suitably impressed. Unfortunately the snow, sleet, and freezing rain storm coming in tonight will likely put an end to skating this winter. Here’s a video I shot this afternoon.
A word of caution: despite the low temperatures, there is still a considerable amount of open water out in the middle of the lake, (see video above) and a few open or mostly open leads around the shore where you wouldn’t expect to see them. This condition is due to a combination of the relatively high water level (2′ below the top of the dam) and a strong current resulting from the dam’s gate being wide open (the lake level is dropping about 1″ per day now). The current flows in a generally straight line from the inlet by the State boat launch passing close by the point at the end of the Duncan Road, to the outlet channel at the northwest end of the lake. The channel itself is ice free as well. The picture at left was taken New Years Day and the open area has gotten considerably larger since then.
This condition has occurred several times in the past few years. These open areas will probably fill with slush from the coming storm and skim over without getting really solid. Snowmobilers and skiers beware: if you don’t know where the safe ice is, you’d best stay close to shore or off the lake altogether.
I’ve also posted a few pictures in the Winter 2015 photo album that Tony Marple sent me yesterday, including this one at left that almost could have been taken on a calm summer day. The clouds reflected on the ice show just how smooth it really is. Thank you Tony.
A couple of skaters cruised by the Clary webcam this morning. It’s a chilly 17° out there making for some “hard” ice but fortunately there’s no wind. I’m going to head out myself in a few minutes and give it a whirl. The ice looks pretty good for the most part, but there appears to still be some open water over on the north shore out in front of the Duncan and Enos properties so if you head out skating, beware.
Incidentally, I’ve added a Winter 2015 photo album.
We'd love to hear from you!
<span style="color: #000000;">Use this feedback form to send a comment to the Clary Lake Association, or ask a question. It will be sent to the Association Webmaster who will distribute it as appropriate. You’re welcome to give us your name and email address but they are not required.</span>
Jane Chase came across 5 old photographs showing repairs being made to the dam back in the fall of 1993. I’ve scanned them and added them to the Chase Family Archive. Art Enos subsequently bought the dam in February of 1995. I recall when the work was being done, the mason Ron Bourassa was a friend of mine and I remember stopping by a few times to watch what was happening. One of the new photographs shows Steve Schlosser who was Ron’s tender on that job. The 5th & last photograph shows someone removing sand bags from the stream 
with a backhoe while dismantling the coffer dam that had been constructed at the narrow gauge railroad abutments. Some of those sand bags are still in the stream as can be seen in the photograph at left, taken by me in the Spring of 2012.
