Red Door Acess Open to Snowmobiles and ATVs
The Red Door Resort Access is now open to all ATV and snowmobile traffic. After crossing a small bridge at shore (see title photo), anglers can easily access the first or second break, or – with a quick mile or so ride – reached the mud flats. Assuming the ice continues to progress, we are tentatively planning to allow side by sides / UTVs out of our access starting at day break on Sunday (12/26) morning.
The Ice Team was out on Wednesday afternoon and found ice depths of 9.5-10″ on the first and second breaks. The ice depths on the mud flats were looking mostly good with 10″ on the north tip of Pantry Flat, 9.5″ off the south side of Bomback Flat and 11″ (if you include the inch of white flood ice) on the north west side of Resort Flat. Things aren’t uniform however, there are patches / swaths of 6″ of ice depth, mostly it seems, where there was open water last Thursday, December 16th (see last week’s Ice Reports here and here for more detail). In particular, there is a about a quarter mile swath of 6″ ice that bisects East Flat (it may go further east; we did not explore) and crosses the Wiemer and Bomback flats before cutting more toward shore (it appears runs north of Resort Flat). The first and second break depth ice changes from 9.5″ to 10″ down to 5.5″ to 6″ in between Doc’s Harbor and Barneveld’s. The Ice Team would guess that the 5.5″ to 6″ ice runs all the way to Garrison / the West Side of the Lake.
Weather Outlook
With the exception of a brief Friday warm up to 39 degrees, temperatures should be cooler with Christmas and beyond with low temperatures predicted close to zero. The north side of Mille Lacs did receive about 6 inches of dry, powdery snow earlier in the week. The snow will doubtlessly provide some insulation and slow down ice making, but we are thankful that it wasn’t wetter and heavier. Eyes now will be on Sunday and Monday which are currently predicted to contain 2″ to 6″ more of the white stuff. The hope is that the snow will miss us or at least only provide accumulations on the low end of the range.
Access on Christmas & Fish House Rentals
The Red Door Access will be closed to the public on Christmas Day / Saturday. It reopen on Sunday morning at 7am.
With current ice depths and cold weather, we are cautiously optimistic that our fish house rentals will be on the lake for New Years weekend. Our five wheelhouses will almost certainly be out on the lake and, hopefully, we’ll be able to get a good portion of our skid fleet out as well.
All of us at the Red Door Resort with you and your family a very Merry Christmas!
