It won’t be long now and we’ll move into the open water season for Lake Minnewaska and other area lakes.  Over the weekend, Pelican Lake was declared completely open. That usually happens about a week or so before Minnewaska becomes ice free. Above, ice piled up on shore near North Lake Shore Drive as warm winds pushed the deteriorating ice toward the north shores. Sunday’s warm, windy conditions helped speed up the ice-off process. A couple more days in the 60s, which is in the forecast this week, and the ice will disappear quickly. If the ice goes out before March 21, it will set a new record as the earliest ice-free date for Minnewaska since 1906.