Couple surprised by ice on Cameron River system outside Yellowknife

Mary Tapselland her husbandwere boating back to Yellowknife from their cabin on River Lake, between Prelude Lake and Prosperous Lake, when Tapsell saw a shimmer ahead, which she took to be a reflection from the sun.

It was indeed a reflection, but fromice on the lake and the Cameron River system, not water.

The couple, who were travelling in a 16 foot Lund fishing boat with their dog,were surprised.

"I've been going out there probably over 25 years now, and that river usually never freezes. It's always open," says Tapsell.

She thinks low water levels, no current and calm conditions allowed the water to freeze for the first time, to her knowledge.

"That was very unusual," Tapsell says.

According to the Great Slave Snowmobile Association, the Cameron River system is not the only area to have early ice this season.The association, which measures ice thickness in Yellowknife, says the ice is forming about two weeks earlier than normal.

Tapsell and her husband used their boat, paddles and "perseverance" to break through a stretch of ice she estimates was abouttwo kilometres long and more than two centimetresthick.

She says the ice wasn't that hard tobreak through, but thinks the mission could have been a lot harder if they'd left the cabin a day later, and the ice had more time to form overnight.

Since the adventure, the Lund has been given a new name.

"It's now been renamed the HSS Icebreaker, I think," Tapsell says with a laugh.

She says her family will wait until the ice is safe to travel on, in late November or December,to go out to their cabin again. The HSS Icebreaker will stay at home for that trip.