I have a strip of gorilla tape on the bow at the waterline. Otherwise running thru skim ice wears a notch into it. And the ice has to be thin enough that the paddle can whack thru it.
Like CG ice breakers they go on top of the ice and break it with their weight.
I quit New Yearâs Eve. I didnât want to find myself telling people I kayaked in January.
The lakes are frozen now. Probably wonât get out until mid-March.
Above freezing and 15 mph wind. Not fun to have ice freezing on everything.
The greatest deterent to winter paddling isnât the cold or cold water, itâs cleaning gear (too often after dark) following padding in salt water once returning home when it is cold.
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Go at dawn 
Early starts are no problem usually for me, however my paddling buddies are not early risers. Sometimes we have to paddle based on tides or forecast winds.
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The weather man says to brace for impact. Tonight the temp is supposed to do a nose dive and go deeply sub-zero. Itâs +11 now, but I may wake up to a much lower temp. Weâll just have to wait and see.
But⌠the top of our water is about 32 degrees now.
It stays close to that temp for quite some time. Never gets very much colder.
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I donât think Iâll get out this weekend:
.REST OF TONIGHTâŚSoutheast winds 5 to 10 kt late this evening,
becoming east after midnight and increasing to gales to 35 kt by
daybreak. Snow after midnight. Waves around 1 ft building to 4 to
6 ft occasionally to 8 ft.
.FRIDAYâŚEast gales to 35 kt becoming northeast 20 to 25 kt in
the afternoon. Snow and rain. Waves 8 to 11 ft occasionally to 14
ft.
.FRIDAY NIGHTâŚNorth winds to 30 kt becoming west and increasing
to 40 kt gales after midnight. Snow and rain in the evening, then
snow overnight. Waves 6 to 9 ft occasionally to 12 ft subsiding
to 4 to 7 ft occasionally to 9 ft.
.SATURDAYâŚWest gales to 40 kt. Freezing spray. Periods of snow
showers. Waves 5 to 8 ft occasionally to 10 ft subsiding to 4 to
6 ft occasionally to 8 ft.
I did a short lake paddle yesterday just because it was possible (in January in Michigan) and with windchill of -20 predicted after the lake effect snow and system snow and high winds Iâm not expecting any more January lake paddles.
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We paddled a few days ago and we expected ice at the edges of the lake but it was only in the middle.
Also, I discovered that layers of neoprene work better, like layers of clothing. I think the layers slide past each other and make me feel less compression and confinement of movement. I was surprised how warm we were (no wind) and only my hands got cold because I was taking them out to use the camera and they got wet.
Lavacore 1 mil, hooded vest 1 mil, 3 mil full wetsuit
The cold is a whole new thing for me.
Your weather would make me store the kayaks for a while and learn how to ice fish. Brrrrr
That being said, our forecast has a very slim chance of snow on Tuesday (a rare occurance along the northern Gulf Coast). Should snow happen during the day, a paddle with photos taken will happen.
It was +11 degrees when I went to bed. It was +11 degrees when I got up. I thought âit missed me this time.â
NOPE!!!
At 9:30 this morning it hit. Itâs now -7 and dropping⌠plus itâs snowing with a 20 MPH wind driving it.
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When paddling season ends, paddle-making season begins⌠Trying to teach myself how to make a foamcore fiberglass greenland paddle. If I can get proficient enough at it, I may get into carbon fiber later on. For now, fiberglass cloth is way more cost effective for learning.
Thatâs the only reason we donât move to Wyoming right here 
Well winterâs here now. As I write this itâs -20F with bright blue skies. No wind.
Also very little snow. We got about 1" in the last 2 nights and itâs on top of the snow that fell on Thanksgiving day. It was about 9-10 inches on that day and packed down to about 4" , so now our total on the ground is about 5".
Thatâs WAY better then this week last year. We now have about 38" less snow and itâs 24 degrees warmer with 35 MPH less wind.
(Last winter sucked)
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I remember your descriptions of last winter. I could not live there in that season.
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He had to, the roads were impassable.
Well, we could use snow shoes and skis. So we were not 100% trapped. It was just that getting larger supplies in was a bit of a pain.
Anna and I used our game sleds to bring groceries home. Iâd run a rope over the bags to keep them from shifting much ,and weâd pull the sleds behind us. Loads from the store were lighter then a load of elk meat, so it was not all that bad really. Not like we were not used to doing it.
Just not very fast.
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I think certain types of people love the challenges of being autonomous and problem solving. I can see in my own mom who sat through a direct hurricane hit (not advised) in Florida, that she feels a renewed sense of self reliance having come though the experience with her friends and neighbors. Itâs easy to say she should leave but in the end she is responsible for her own outcomes and she was lucky. That aside, the most difficult part is the aftermath and she had to be there to manage her property and repairs. She seems confident and proud of herself for being a âsurvivor.â Iâve been through hurricanes and tropical storms in the Caribbean and like the fact that I had those difficult experiences. Iâm not sure I am tough enough for Wyoming but I can see the appeal! Also it would be very fulfilling to live around such resilient individuals.
To relate it back to kayaking, we like making our own plans and learning from mistakes. We moved to Europe during peak Covid in the Boston area early and had to have movers all over our home, fly internationally, and be quarantined for two weeks in a totally empty house in a village. We had no food, no dishes, no beds. We figured out on WhatsApp how to get groceries (translate everything) delivered to the door, get a mattress drop shipped, and we found floor tiles in the garage that we washed and used as plates. We look back and laugh about everything we managed to do. The curious neighbors would come meet and talk to us over the garden gate, bring us freshly baked loaves of German bread, etc.
We could have gone to a military base and been âtaken care ofâ but you had to call the front desk to walk your dog and they only let one person in the elevator or six flights of stairs at a time. We heard from others that you could not even open a window because they were screwed shut.
That just wasnât for us and so we camped in an empty house for a couple months until our essential shipment arrived. Most of the other Americans asked us how we did the impossible but it was easy compared to what they went through. Families with kids and pets were quarantined in a hotel room, couldnât go outside, can you imagine? We ate with handmade chop sticks we made with garden stakes but it was fun.
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