The anxiously awaited and much anticipated conclusion of the 2025 Clary Lake Ice Out Contest has finally arrived! I’m declaring ice out today, April 1st! No this isn’t an April Fools joke! There has been a large and frustratingly persistent ice floe down at the east end of the lake that blocked access to the lake from the State Boat launch. While the rest of the lake has been pretty much ice free for a while, it’s really hard to call it ice out if you can’t launch a boat. Today, that ice floe has finally succumbed to a strong northeast wind.

And we have a winner! It’s me! I won! I picked April 1st way back on February 16th! Sadly I can’t with a clear conscience both be the person who determines ice out and the winner of the contest, or so my wife tells me. According to Margaret, that would be just wrong, So in the interest of maintaining spousal serenity I’ve decided to give the $25 Jefferson Scoop first prize gift certificate to the person who came closest without going over: Carolyn Curtis! Her guess was yesterday, March 31st. Carolyn and her husband Paul have a camp over on Hornpout Lane. Maybe she’ll buy me an ice cream cone this summer. Is that too much to ask?

Thank you all for playing!

There’s a persistent raft of ice, perhaps as much as 30 acres of it, in the east end of Clary Lake that is preventing me from calling ice out.  There’s still some ice on the south shore over by the town line but that isn’t the issue. The picture above (and at left) was taken this afternoon at the State Boat launch. I can’t really call it ice out if you can’t launch a boat at the boat launch!

Ice out 2025 is imminent, likely anytime in the next couple of days. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe the day after. The above picture was taken earlier today down at the east end of the lake on Route 126. Right now about 10% of the main body of the lake that is still ice covered. I’m shooting for roughly 99.5% open water which corresponds to no more than 2 acres of ice clinging to the shoreline.

And the Loons are back!

Well it’s March 15th and as planned, I have closed the 2025 Ice Out contest to new entries. There are 40 guestimates, 8 more than last year. Review the original “2025 Clary Lake Ice Out Contest!” post for the rules and prizes. Here are the entries. Remember you can sort the list by clicking on a column heading.

Good Luck!

2025 Ice Out Contest Guestimates

This is our sixth 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. When the Scoop actually opens for business we’ll pick up a the gift certificate and get it to you. I swiped the picture at left of a Maple Walnut cone the Scoop’s FB page. Mmmm….

Now I’ve heard rumors that people think our contest is rigged. I guarantee you this will be a fair contest!! Granted, Gayle Knight has won the ice out contest the last two years in a row and while I’m pretty sure she’s cheating, I can’t figure out how. So I spoke to her the other day and while I can’t prevent her from entering the contest, at my request she has agreed to NOT win again this year. We’ll see!

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 last year on March 8, 2024; the latest the ice has gone out was on April 24, 2001.  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 are the contest entries we’ve received so far, in the order in which they came in (it may take a while for your guestimate to show up). Hint: you can sort the records by clicking on the column header. You’ll find the Entry Form at the bottom of this post. I’ll also put a link to this post in the list of Useful Links on the sidebar at right so you can find it easily. 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

2025 Ice Out Contest Guestimates