I've always wanted to do a winter trip with sleds. This is the year. My brother in law wanted to join so we picked dates based on his schedule and not necessarily ideal ice and snow conditions. We plan to enter March 8. How much ice is on the lakes now? Even with 50degree temps I would expect the ice to be decent for another week or two. Has anyone been out recently or gone on a late ice trips to provide comments? I would take recommended routes too. We're kind of planning to take a route with a good mix of portage's and smaller lakes.

The ice will be plenty thick for travel. Snow on the ice should be greatly reduced making lake travel easier though pulling a sled on the portages may become problematic.

Stay away from the semi hauling rocks on Lake of the Woods. The ice wasn't quite thick enough for the loaded truck. As far as I know there were no injuries.

What are the snow conditions like right now? What do people expect for snow conditions next week? I'm in northern Iowa and we are loosing our snow quickly this wee. Trails here are going to be a mix of ice and mud come next week. Should we look to give up the sled trip and switch to packs, if we plan to do much portaging?

2-3" snow in Ely as of today.

cmanimal: "2-3" snow in Ely as of today."

Maybe in town. In the woods the snow is above the level of my "just below the knee" Muck Boots.