This is our fifth year running a Clary Lake Ice-Out contest. This year’s prize for first place is the same as last year’s prize, a $25 Gift Certificate to The Jefferson Scoop. Yay Ice Cream! If you guess the correct ice-out date  or come closest without going past it, you’re the winner. It’s quite likely that the ice will go out before the Scoop actually opens for business. As soon as the Scoop opens, we’ll pick up the certificate and get it to you.

In the event there are two (or more) people who guessed the same winning date, the person guessing first (based on the recorded timestamp) will be the winner and the other less-lucky (but still lucky!) person (or persons!) will win a laminated 8.5″ x 11″ Clary Lake Depth Map as a runner up prize (see below). FYI, the earliest the lake has been deemed completely free of ice was on March 13, 2016; the latest the ice has gone out was on April 24, 2001. Last year’s “official” ice out date was March 29th which was correctly guessed by Vicki Grimaldi. She won a beautiful 12″ H x 15″ W framed loon photograph taken by David Hodsdon. We also awarded some second places prizes to a couple of other people. Visit our Ice In and Ice Out page to see all our historical data back to 2001. Reviewing historical ice-in and ice-out data is NOT CHEATING! We’ll be closing the contest to new guesses late on March 15th or sooner if it looks like ice out is actually imminent. Guess as often as you want, but remember: only your last guess counts!

Here’s the entry form. A few hints: 1) Use the little little calendar icon thingy and select your date guess  by clicking on the calendar, this helps prevent botched dates and 2) I’ll plan to update the list of people’s guestimates at the bottom of this message several times a day 🙂

2024 Ice Out Contest Guestimates