Category Archives: News

News from around the lake.

New Clary Lake Water Quality Monitor Gets Certified!

Kelsie French, a longtime summer resident of Clary Lake, has recently been certified by Lake Stewards of Maine as a Water Quality Monitor. She has been assisting George Fergusson with regular water sampling and testing on Clary lake since 2018, and has completed extensive training in water quality monitoring procedures such as Secchi disc use (to measure water clarity) and dissolved oxygen measurement. These water monitoring tasks are crucial to maintaining the health of the lake, as they indicate how well the Clary Lake Association is doing in it’s efforts to maintain Clary Lake’s water quality.

Kelsie and George conduct water quality monitoring sessions on Clary Lake every 2 weeks through out the boating season. The picture above was taken on May 18th of this year on our first water quality monitoring session of 2025.

Summer 2025 Raffle!

The 2025 Summer Clary Lake Association Raffle is underway! Tickets cost $5 each or 5 tickets for $20. We’ve only printed 500 this time, and we want to sell them all! Once again, Mark & Tara Doe of Louis Doe Garden Center in Newcastle have  graciously donated our Grand Prize, a $100 Gift Certificate redeemable at their Newcastle store. Other confirmed exciting prizes from local businesses include donated gift certificates from Sheepscot General & the Jefferson Market, with more to be added. This year we have a member donating $40 worth of lottery scratch tickets so get your lucky penny ready!

The items being raffled off have been come from businesses based on the Member Survey we sent out in late winter.

The drawing for the raffle will be held at the Clary Lake Association’s Annual Meeting on Saturday August 23rd at the home of Gareth & Beverley Bowen at 739 Gardiner Road in Jefferson. The meeting starts at 3PM and usually goes for about an hour and a half. We’ll hold the drawing at the conclusion of the Membership Meeting. There is no limit to the number of tickets you can buy so if you want to increase your chances of winning, buy a lot! 

Why Are We Raising Money?

We are raising money for our Clary Lake Dam Maintenance and Repair fund. The dam is in reasonable shape now but it leaks, and leaks only get worse, not better. Someday in the not too distant future we’re going to have to make some costly repairs to the dam and gate mechanism. This is your chance to help fund that effort and maybe win something as well. Sadly, money that you spend on raffle tickets is not tax deductible, even if given to a nonprofit organization such as the Clary Lake Association. Sorry! If you WOULD like to make a tax deductible contribution, please visit our Donate to the Association page!

YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE PRESENT TO WIN! Make sure that you write your contact info (at least your name and phone number) on the back of the ticket stub so we can reach out to you to let you know you won. Gift certificates can be mailed.

How To Get Tickets

We’ve only printed 500 tickets this year and we want to sell ALL of them! There are lots of ways you can get raffle tickets:

  1. Make out a check made out to Clary Lake Association and mail it to PO Box 127, Whitefield ME 04353 and we’ll mail you your tickets! How easy is that?
  2. If you haven’t sent in your dues yet, just include your ticket money with your dues and we’ll mail your your tickets! 2 birds with one stamp!
  3. If you know a Board member, go see them, they’ll have tickets to sell.
  4. We’d like to make it easy to buy tickets! You can simply email your name, mailing address, and phone number to ticketsales@clarylake.org and someone will call to make arrangements to meet up with you to get you some tickets!
  5. Tickets will be available at the Annual Meeting on Saturday August 23rd from about 1PM until the drawing.
  6. You can buy tickets at the Clary Lake Association’ Ice Cream Social (Saturday July 19th)
  7. You can use the button below to buy tickets and pay for them with a credit card or with your Paypal or Venmo account. We’ll put your tickets in the mail and put your ticket stubs in the bucket with all the rest. How easy is that!

 

We’re continuing to work on easy ways to sell you tickets. Stay tuned for future announcements!

Clarycam2 is Going Off Line

In about a week, Clarycam2 is going off line. Long time Clary Lake residents David and Janette  Hodsdon who have been hosting Clarycam_2 since November 2015 have put their home on the market and are leaving for Pennsylvania to be closer to David’s family. When they shut off their internet connection sometime next week, Clarycam2 will stop working.

I’m going to miss it and I hope we can return it to service soon. I’d like to think that whomever the new owners of their property are that they’ll be willing to continue hosting a camera on their network, but that remains to be seen. In the meantime, I’m looking around for a new place for the camera. It requires electric power and wireless internet. I’m looking into a solar power option which would make hosting the camera considerably easier since it wouldn’t need an extension cord to operate. If you think you have a good location for a camera, contact me!

May 2025 Water Level Chart Archived

5 Clary-Lake-Water-Level-May-2025I have archived the May 2025 water level chart (above, and at left). For the third month in a row we’ve received over 5 inches of rain with May having received just shy of 6 inches, making this one very wet spring! In fact, it has rained every weekend for the past 3 months! As of the end of May we’ve received a total of 19.84 inches of precipitation or 2.69 inches more than average for this date, and even more impressive statistic given precipitation in January and February were well below average. 

20250527_153527-MediumWith all this rain you’d expect the lake level to have remained high, and you’d be right: the lake has been gently overtopping the dam all month. Also with all this rain you might expect some sediment-polluted runoff to have entered the lake resulting in moderate early season algae growth, and you’d be right again. Sure enough, Kelsie French and I started our Water Quality Monitoring for 2025 on Sunday, May 18th and the water was distinctly murky. We obtained a secchi disk reading of only 3.19 meters indicating some early season algae growth. As blooms go, 3 meters is really pretty mild (the State doesn’t consider your lake is blooming until transparency drops below 2 meters) and usually blooms this early in the season are short-lived. The algae quickly consumes the available nutrients and then dies off. In deed, only nine days later I spotted the telltale green scum on the lake surface, evidence of the cyanobacteria die off (picture above). On our second trip out to the deep hole on Friday May 30th, our secchi disk reading was 3.87 meters indicating the water was already clearing up. You can see where these first 2 secchi disk readings fall on the chart at left.

Assuming runoff slows down as the summer progresses, we can look forward to improving transparency later this summer.

 

April 2025 Water Level Chart Archived

Clary-Lake-Water-Level-April-2025I have archived the April 2025 water level chart (above, and at left). The drought conditions in January and February finally gave way to increased precipitation in March and that wet trend continued into April. We received 5.02 inches of precipitation more or less evenly spread out over the month, 1.20 inches more than average. This kept the lake level hovering between the top of the dam and the high water mark for pretty much the entire month. It did drop below the top of the dam briefly near the end of the month but 2 inches of rain on the 26th and 27th brought it right back up again. We ended the month with a lake level not too far from where is was at the start of the month. Our mandate from the DEP per our water level order is to fill the Lake to it’s “full capacity” after ice out, and we’ve done that. We’ll see where it goes from here! Continue reading →

New Google Earth Imagery Available

Google Earth has uploaded new imagery for this area (above and at left) dated March 18th 2025 which if you’ll recall was only 3 days after I closed the 2025 ice out contest. In other words, the current Google Earth view shows an ice-covered Clary Lake with a level of detail that is just astounding. The lake level was actually 0.3′ above the normal HWM on this date or in other words, FULL. This late in the season, there was open water along the shoreline on the north side of the lake (this area get more sunlight than along the south shore). I particularly like the set of wheel tracks that lead in a straight line from the State boat launch to a point just a couple of hundred feet from the lake’s “deep hole” where an ice fishing shack was setup for much of the winter. You can also see a couple of pressure ridges (see Ice Berms & Pressure Ridges) in the traditional places, open water over the shallow sand bar down by the boat launch, and more!

This new imagery is only available on the desktop version of Google Earth Pro, which is free software (go download it!) The browser version and the Android and iPhone apps do not have this new imagery.

Clary Lake Patronage Feedback Survey

Clary Lake is an incredible natural resource, and the Clary Lake Association is working hard to protect and improve it for everyone to enjoy. As part of our ongoing efforts, the Association is fundraising for critical dam repairs and other initiatives to improve water quality.

To help with this, we’re reaching out to local businesses to see if they’d like to support the Clary Lake Association. But first, we need your help! Please take a moment to complete this short survey about the businesses you frequent. Your responses will help us connect with the businesses that matter most to our community.

The survey should only take a few minutes of your time and as a thank-you, everyone who completes the survey by April 23rd will be entered to win a $25 Reny’s gift card! Continue reading →

March 2025 Water Level Chart Archived

3 Clary-Lake-Water-Level-March-2025I have archived the March 2025 water level chart (above, and at left). The drought conditions in January and February finally gave way to increased precipitation in March which made up some, but not all of the precipitation shortfall so far this winter. All told we received 5.17 inches of water in March, 1.40 inches more than normal bringing us to 8.80 inches for the year or 87% of normal. The lack of precipitation this winter has resulted in lowered ground water supplies leading the Maine Drought Monitor to calling us “Abnormally Dry,” a somewhat unusual condition for this time of year. We took advantage of the increased precipitation in March to raise the lake level by gradually adding stoplogs to the weir. We started the month with the lake at -1.35 feet below the HWM, briefly peaked at 0.3 feet ABOVE the High Water Mark, and ended at -0.09 feet with a little water flowing over the top of the dam. The gate is currently open 1/2 a foot. Continue reading →

2025 Ice Out Contest Finally Over!

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!

Not Ice Out Yet!

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!

Venus and Ice

Venus and its reflection made an appearance in the eastern sky just before sunrise this morning on Clarycam 2. You can even see its crescent shape, easier in the photo at left than in the featured image above. You can’t see it in this photo but there’s still about 60 acres of ice on Clary Lake, most of it down at the east end of the lake.

Patience… Another day or two…

Ice Out Imminent!

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!

2025 Ice Out Contest is Closed to Entries

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

TimestampYour name:Ice Out Guess:
2/16/2025 13:36:13Jack Holland3/17/2025
2/16/2025 15:01:19George Fergusson4/01/2025
2/16/2025 15:09:28Steve Relyea4/22/2025
2/16/2025 15:48:23Cathi Laweryson4/30/2025
2/16/2025 15:52:53Gary Laweryson4/12/2025
2/16/2025 15:57:00Malcolm Burson4/02/2025
2/16/2025 16:42:07Brian Vogel3/26/2025
2/17/2025 12:12:10Peter Fasano4/06/2025
2/17/2025 13:54:06Margaret Fergusson4/03/2025
2/17/2025 14:12:01Ben Giguere4/07/2025
2/17/2025 15:39:40Bambi jones4/02/2025
2/17/2025 15:43:27colin S caissie3/13/2025
2/17/2025 16:14:49Arlene Wing3/28/2025
2/17/2025 16:28:35Erin Trundy4/17/2025
2/17/2025 23:20:40Sarah Mismash4/12/2025
2/18/2025 2:17:54Don Hogg4/04/2025
2/18/2025 10:09:42Leslie Gillette4/20/2025
2/18/2025 11:26:31Donna Roeckel3/09/2025
2/18/2025 14:35:37Liz Sroka3/25/2025
2/21/2025 16:57:16KELSIE FRENCH4/23/2025
2/23/2025 9:41:19Karen Stutzer4/05/2025
2/24/2025 12:04:51Alan Clark3/29/2025
2/26/2025 16:59:04June Lordi4/18/2025
2/27/2025 8:57:03Stephen Dudley3/22/2025
2/27/2025 9:04:31Gayle Knight3/30/2025
2/27/2025 11:38:38Ron Rollins3/27/2025
2/28/2025 11:05:00Deborah Dudley4/08/2025
3/2/2025 11:47:56Linda S Gallion4/11/2025
3/6/2025 7:51:22Harvey Siebert4/06/2025
3/6/2025 19:56:28Carolyn Curtis3/31/2025
3/6/2025 20:23:20Bill Spann4/17/2025
3/7/2025 16:52:44kate seba4/09/2025
3/7/2025 18:28:22Julie Anderson4/11/2025
3/7/2025 23:34:41David Hodsdon3/11/2025
3/9/2025 8:47:38Vicky Grimaldi4/02/2025
3/15/2025 19:09:11Stephen Viti4/12/2025

2025 Clary Lake Ice Out Contest!

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 Clary_Lake_and_Meadow_Depth_Map_version_1.4runner 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

TimestampYour name:Ice Out Guess:
2/16/2025 13:36:13Jack Holland3/17/2025
2/16/2025 15:01:19George Fergusson4/01/2025
2/16/2025 15:09:28Steve Relyea4/22/2025
2/16/2025 15:48:23Cathi Laweryson4/30/2025
2/16/2025 15:52:53Gary Laweryson4/12/2025
2/16/2025 15:57:00Malcolm Burson4/02/2025
2/16/2025 16:42:07Brian Vogel3/26/2025
2/17/2025 12:12:10Peter Fasano4/06/2025
2/17/2025 13:54:06Margaret Fergusson4/03/2025
2/17/2025 14:12:01Ben Giguere4/07/2025
2/17/2025 15:39:40Bambi jones4/02/2025
2/17/2025 15:43:27colin S caissie3/13/2025
2/17/2025 16:14:49Arlene Wing3/28/2025
2/17/2025 16:28:35Erin Trundy4/17/2025
2/17/2025 23:20:40Sarah Mismash4/12/2025
2/18/2025 2:17:54Don Hogg4/04/2025
2/18/2025 10:09:42Leslie Gillette4/20/2025
2/18/2025 11:26:31Donna Roeckel3/09/2025
2/18/2025 14:35:37Liz Sroka3/25/2025
2/21/2025 16:57:16KELSIE FRENCH4/23/2025
2/23/2025 9:41:19Karen Stutzer4/05/2025
2/24/2025 12:04:51Alan Clark3/29/2025
2/26/2025 16:59:04June Lordi4/18/2025
2/27/2025 8:57:03Stephen Dudley3/22/2025
2/27/2025 9:04:31Gayle Knight3/30/2025
2/27/2025 11:38:38Ron Rollins3/27/2025
2/28/2025 11:05:00Deborah Dudley4/08/2025
3/2/2025 11:47:56Linda S Gallion4/11/2025
3/6/2025 7:51:22Harvey Siebert4/06/2025
3/6/2025 19:56:28Carolyn Curtis3/31/2025
3/6/2025 20:23:20Bill Spann4/17/2025
3/7/2025 16:52:44kate seba4/09/2025
3/7/2025 18:28:22Julie Anderson4/11/2025
3/7/2025 23:34:41David Hodsdon3/11/2025
3/9/2025 8:47:38Vicky Grimaldi4/02/2025
3/15/2025 19:09:11Stephen Viti4/12/2025

 

Winter 2024 LSM Water Column Newsletter Available

Lake Stewards of Maine has been putting out an annual newsletter  for many years. It is full of interesting lake-related news and information and well worth perusing. The Clary Lake Association has been a supporting member of Lake Stewards of Maine (formerly the Volunteer Lake Monitor Program) since 1975 making Clary Lake the 3rd longest monitored lake in the state.

Gwendolyn R. Andersen May 23, 1935 – January 30, 2025

Gwendolyn Andersen has passed away at the age of 89. She was the mother of our current Treasurer, Charlene Andersen. I did not personally know Gwendolyn or her husband Donald but after reading her obituary I wish I’d had a chance to get to know this couple. They were Clary Lake Association members “back in the day” long before I got involved with the Association. Looking through old association records I find Gwendolyn and Donald’s names on a membership list from the year 1999 which is as far back as I have digital records. Charlene’s parents and grandparents bought adjoining camps on the west shore of the lake off Hornpout Lane back in the early 1960s which are still in the family today. By 2020, the main Andersen camp was getting pretty tired and Charlene and her sister Pennilyn were able to engage the Maine Cabin Masters to give their camp a new lease on life (see Episode 603 of Season 6). There is a 40 minute video of the project supposedly available on various subscription services (I just watched it on Hulu). Gwendolyn makes an appearance at the end of the video to see the completed project.

The Board offers their condolences to Charlene and her family for the loss of their mother. Gwendolyn’s official obituary can be found at the Cota Funeral Home website. It is duplicated in part here. Continue reading →

William Corliss McKeen Feb. 16, 1941 – January 8, 2025

Bill was a talented and accomplished individual. We’re still using the “Ice Cream Social” signs he made for us. He will be missed. This Obituary can be found at Direct Cremation of Maine.

WHITEFIELD – William Corliss McKeen of Whitefield, Maine passed away on January 8th at his home with his beloved wife, Susan, by his side. He was born in Millinocket, Maine on February 16, 1941, the son of Edwin and Verna McKeen. He graduated from Camden High School in 1959.

Bill was a graphic designer, painter, genealogist, history buff and a collector of coins, guns, diecast car models, books and antiques. Bill’s interests were boundless. He began his professional career at the age of 5 when he sold his first painting at the corner store in Rockport. Bill went on to become a maker of hand-painted signs. His design talents soon took him to Presque Isle where he became television art director at WAGM TV. Soon after he put his many talents together as a newspaper designer at The Aroostook Star Herald in Presque Isle, Courier Gazette in Rockland and the Coastal Journal in Bath where he became owner and  publisher. After selling the Coastal Journal Bill formed an advertising agency, McKeen & Associates in Bath. His next project took him full circle back to producing signs, but this time using digital technology, by forming Minuteman Signs located in Augusta. Continue reading →

Extraordinary Ice Conditions on Clary Lake

Clary-Ice-1-10-25-1It’s been a good winter for ice so far, though it was a little dicey to begin with! Carolyn Curtis and her husband Paul Devlin have a camp over on Hornpout Lane, they came up last week to spend some time at camp and to go skating. Carolyn sent me a couple of pictures, the one above and the one at left. I’ve added them both to the Winter 2025 gallery, one I turned into a banner on the site. My skating days are behind me, but I’ve been out walking with ice creepers on. Clary is a four season adventure!

Harvey Jennison Gerdts January 10, 2020 – January 2, 2025

Our love and compassion go out to Hillary Relyea and her husband Ben Gerdts over the loss of  their son Harvey earlier this month. He was just shy of 5 years old. Hillary sent me this news and some pictures this morning and asked if I would share with our Clary community.

With heavy hearts, we announce the passing of our beloved son, Harvey Jennison, who left us too soon on January 2nd. He brought boundless joy and laughter into our lives with his inquisitive nature, love of art and puzzles, and compassion for all. His smile, always accompanied by a twinkle in his eye, was a reflection of his vibrant, infectious happiness. He cherished his family and embraced his role as a big brother and oldest cousin. Though Harv’s time with us was too brief, the love and memories we shared will forever remain in our hearts. Continue reading →