A black and white day by the river

We walked home from town along Sussex Drive this afternoon, during the latest snowfall. Across the river, artificial snow makers are adding to the amount for the sake of the Winterlude playground (aka Snowflake Kingdom, the biggest snow playground in North America!) being constructed over there, in Jacques-Cartier park. The machines are in operation night and day.

Below is a picture of the Ottawa side of the river, showing Nepean Point and the Alexandra Bridge over the frozen, snow-covered river. The bridge is currently closed to traffic because it's being given a new coat of paint, to prevent steel corrosion. On an average day, when it's open, this interprovincial bridge is crossed by 22,000 vehicles.

The pictures on this page, by the way, are colour photos, not black and white ones.

Good news for Au Feel de L'Eau

Aqua Taxi on the Gatineau, last summer

The Aqua Taxi service owned by Au Feel de L'Eau has had some good news this month. They are not only going to be sailing on the Ottawa and Gatineau Rivers this summer. They've also been granted permission to run their electric water taxi on the Rideau Canal.

Du nouveau pour 2014! Nous sommes très heureux d'annoncer que nous offrirons un service d'Aqua-Taxi électrique sur le canal Rideau dès la saison prochaine.

I'm very pleased to hear this. There are already cruises available through town from May to October, up the Rideau Canal to Dows Lake and back, but no opportunity to get off the boat at the far end. Your only option is to disembark at your starting point. The Aqua Taxi will change that. Since there isn't a convenient bus running from downtown to Dows Lake, it's a service Ottawa tourists and residents have needed for years.

I wonder if I shall see them bringing their boat up through the eight locks by Parliament Hill.

An exercise in patience

Waiting for a bite

According to her status update, a Facebook friend of mine went ice fishing with a friend near Rockland today. She called it "The ultimate exercise in patience."

A lot of the river ice is slush covered at present, in poor condition because of the mild week we've had, wet and slippery on the surface, but the ice is still 18" thick on average (45cm).

New Year and very cold

The other night, out of doors at 30 below, we saw a girl set off to walk her dog across the Rideau River to the park on the other side. There's no danger of people falling through the ice now as it must have thickened considerably during the last couple of weeks.

The average thickness of the ice in Baitshop Bay by Petrie Island, on the Ottawa River, is now reported to be 30cm. Last reported ice condition: "excellent" for fishing.

Today the Rideau Canal was opened for skating which means the ice is of a good thickness there too.

All 7.8 kilometres of the Rideau Canal Skateway are now open between Rideau and Dows Lake, including Patterson Creek and the Hartwell Locks. Last night a full sweep and flooding was completed. Sweeping operations were completed this morning. We ask that skaters use extra caution this afternoon. There are many areas with very rough patches of ice and with the volume of skaters, the condition of the ice will continue to deteriorate throughout the rest of the day.

Happy New Year, Ottawa!