I think I know the likely answer, but want to toss this out: if you are going in when there is likely to be shore ice, or more, would you try it with a kevlar boat? Seems like aluminum (or royalex or equivalent?) could take more abuse. I have already learned not to use a wood paddle to break ice :)

Best thing is to work your way south. Haha! Can be a problem if your busting thick stuff. But just the stuff forming at first I never worried about. I think Dan Cooke has a story about getting out on questionable ice. Be prepared to get wet and deal with it is all.

I wouldn't go in with any kind of canoe when ice is forming. That's a good way to get into a bad situation. I *might* take a non-kevlar canoe into spring ice that is melting and breaking-up, but I probably never will since ice that is that far gone will likely be gone within a day or few anyway, so I'd just wait.

I have used both aluminum and royalex boats with fall ice just forming and spring ice before breakup. In each case we would run the boat up on the ice and the bow paddler would bounce it up and down to crack up the ice with never any harm to either type of boat. It worked and we did it in our youthful eagerness to get out there. Also, in the spring you can usually paddle along shorelines where the ice goes out first. Now I wait until ice out in the spring and check with locals before going later in the fall. I would not use my Kevlar boat to break ice. After the first spring trip in the late 1970’s with wood paddles we switched to plastic Mohawk paddles.

I've done plenty of ice-breaking in my Bell carbon/Kevlar solo and it didn't hurt the boat a bit, mine has a thick gelcoat. Aluminum would be best of course. I wonder if Royalex would be better than the Kevlar or not, it seems like the ice could cut into the soft Royalex more easily than Kevlar. In my experience you can only break through pretty thin ice since the ice gets very strong as soon as it gets a little thickness. I'm just guessing but I think 1/8 inch thick ice is pretty nasty to get through and 1/4 inch might stop just about any canoe.

Most of my ice breaking has been in my good old Coleman while late season duck hunting, but I just don’t think I would worry about my Kevlar that much. Could the ice possibly be that much harder and more damaging than all the rocks I accidentally hit on any given day of paddling?

No direct to the OP question, but some ice paddling experience.
No ice experience in a canoe, but plenty of times in a poly kayak on local river paddling. Cracked the blade on a paddle once so more gentle with any whacking since. Most of the river would be open, but some places I would have to break through ice to get to the next open area. I would ride up on the ice, bounce a bit, back up and repeat. More than once on the breaking through the boat would lurch to one side or other as it slipped down into the water. I was glad for the cockpit and low center of gravity, and that I was only in 3-4 feet of water just in case.
I did get some mild gouging on that poly boat, but is was well used by then and none the worse for a few more battle scars.

Sure would. I've never had any damage to kevlar from ice.

Wood paddles are pretty good for breaking ice. They get beat up but are tougher and cheaper than a ZRE to replace. Unless you go with the ice'ed up version of the ZRE...

I would be concerned with the increased risk of tipping running the bow on to the ice. I've almost tipped my magic a couple of times running the bow on to submerged logs.

Thanks for all the info. Minimal experience here, except for breaking through some nearshore ice to paddle locally. I did use a kevlar boat, but didn't push my luck. Messed up a thinner wood paddle. Plastic paddle next time, if I go.

I’ve only done this one time with an aluminum canoe. The bow would ride up and then break through the ice. Glad I had a strong vessel that day.

justpaddlin: " In my experience you can only break through pretty thin ice since the ice gets very strong as soon as it gets a little thickness. I'm just guessing but I think 1/8 inch thick ice is pretty nasty to get through and 1/4 inch might stop just about any canoe. "

No ice experience, but I'm filing this info away for future use. Does anyone else have experience with what ice thickness is reasonable for a canoe?

Short answer, when the rescue squad saves your butt, ask them what their using.

I hear you. I ask questions here and try to learn stuff ahead of time, hoping those folks can stay home. I like the edge seasons and conditions; I also very much appreciate safety.

Ice does not not damage canoes regardless of the material except for birchbark.
Paddles get real beat up though.

You can paddle and crash through ice until you can't break it up any longer and then it becomes a big problem. At that point you can neither paddle nor walk on it.
Tom

tumblehome: "You can paddle and crash through ice until you can't break it up any longer and then it becomes a big problem. At that point you can neither paddle nor walk on it.
Tom"

Tumblehome: I'm hoping to extend my range from late September into the edge seasons where ice is possible. If you hit the point where you have broken through a long stretch of it and then it thickens so you can't walk or paddle, does ice reform more slowly where you've passed through? I'm asking are you trapped or do you have the option of retracing your path and getting back to where started breaking ice?

Chuckles: "

tumblehome: "You can paddle and crash through ice until you can't break it up any longer and then it becomes a big problem. At that point you can neither paddle nor walk on it.
Tom"

Tumblehome: I'm hoping to extend my range from late September into the edge seasons where ice is possible. If you hit the point where you have broken through a long stretch of it and then it thickens so you can't walk or paddle, does ice reform more slowly where you've passed through? I'm asking are you trapped or do you have the option of retracing your path and getting back to where started breaking ice?
"

It really depends on the ambient air temperature. If you are paddling at 10’ F. Ice will reform behind you quickly but you still have an hour/hours to retrace your path back.
If it’s 25’ or 30’ ehh, you have plenty of time.

However, if a person is paddling and crashing ice to the point where they get stuck in ice too thick to paddle, they have put themself in to a dangerous situation. This sort of scenario should not be an option. A similar situation would be paddling in rapids that can potentially overcome a canoeist. It’s best to avoid both scenarios completely.

In past posts I have described being trapped by ice two times. One time I had to drag my canoe nearly 1/2 mile through muskeg to reach a portage since my stream had froze over. The other time was on Gabbro when the entire lake froze over in one night.

In both cases, I was not worried about being trapped since I believed in my skills. In both cases, had I stayed a day longer, I would have been in trouble. BWCA camping at the point where ice is forming before your eyes is a pinnacle of camping exhilaration.

I cancelled my weekend trip because I think the ice is forming faster than my abilities to get out again. It’s all about timing!
Tom

I took a quick 2 night loop from Brule late October 2018. Cold with snow and ice covered portages. The big downhill from Kiskadinna to Muskeg were ice covered rocks. Ended up putting the canoe down and sliding it down part of the portage to reduce the risk of really busting my butt with a slip. The portage landing on Muskeg was the first ice I encountered. I still didn't think it was early enough for any of the lakes to freeze up to the point of not being able to get through..

Well I was actually shocked and really felt alive when I arrived at South Temperance and could see ice closing off the eastern bay / channel leading back to Brule. I could see some open water on the opposite shore but no unfrozen pathway to proceed in that direction.
I sized up the situation while test breaking the ice with my backup straight blade paddle. I cracked ice all the way across and thankfully was able to get through. I estimated the ice thickness at 3/16 to 1/4. I wouldn't want to be in that situation again. But for a brief while I had that "special" feeling of being presented with an unexpected challenge.

I think it's hard to overstate the dangers of assuming you have any ability to penetrate ice as a strategy to expand your shoulder season trips. I'm primarily a day paddler. On small lakes one day you may be able to launch and crunch/chop through some very thin ice and the next day there's no way. I've been on lakes and rivers just as they become partially open in early Spring and you can't even chip away at the ice edge plus there's plenty of danger if you somehow enter the water. We live near Lake Michigan and it can be startling to see a clear shoreline one day and then 100+ feet of thick, unstable ice the next day when the wind shifts and the ice is blown in from somewhere else. One day can change conditions dramatically. I think moving water (rivers) are a little more predictable and less susceptible to big changes overnight.