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We were snowshoeing on a frozen pond in Maine that the locals snowmobile over but got to one side and the ice all starting cracking- barely made it to a more stable area before falling through. It was the spring inlet to the pond so the moving water made for very unstable ice forming. Nothing is certain on ice.
In December 2017 I briefly walked on a very small pond in Kentucky, and then that January I walked on a pond in my dad's neighborhood in North Carolina. It doesn't usually have enough ice to walk on, but we had an unusually long spell of below-freezing weather. I've only ice skated in skating rinks, but I've intentionally "ice skated" in tennis shoes over puddles or on sleet-covered sidewalks.
Yep in Yellowknife this past January when it was in the minus 30s Celsius, I did a lot of things on the Great Slave lake. I walked, jogged, rode a bicycle, drove a car, and ice fished. I did not snowmobile or drive a truck. In any case it was great and I hope to do it again soon.
The ice was around 70 cm thick if I remember correctly. Here are the photos:
In Northern Minnesota (Voyageurs National Park) I've also done cross country skiing and snowshoeing on top a lake. One can go find the relevant images in the 2016-17 NH Winter Photo thread if desired; i'm too lazy to go look for it.
I've also ice skated a few times, most recently when I visited Lake Placid in early 2018.
Here in the NYC and Long Island area I've only walked on top of frozen (artificial) lakes in the golf course behind my childhood home. That was back when I was a teenager and I did really stupid things with my friends.
I have also dove under it ,and stayed under a while.doing a recovery. We use a harness with a floating polypropylene line to the surface [A sinking line will drop to the bottom and snarl }. A second diver at the top for safety. Y.ou cut the ice with a chain saw having a 2 foot bar, you then push the Ice burg you made under the stable ice, and then go to work
Last edited by ben young; 12-24-2019 at 05:02 PM..
I live in a land of ice and snow 6 months of the year, so I've done 5 of those on the poll.
I've walked on it, ice fished, snow machined, skated and driven a truck on it.
The last one (driven a truck on it), I only did once and will never do it again most likely. The ice was 5 feet thick, and there were other vehicles out on the ice, but still...
In the winter, frozen lakes are something we take as a given for many activities in the winter time. We park our truck in a public parking lot and then ride our machine across two lakes to get to our cottage, or we could ride the snow machine up our driveway, but it is much bumpier and slower traveling.
I used to drive 30 miles by snow machine to a friend's cottage when I was in my 20's and 30's. It didn't matter if it was one of those "freeze your nostrils" days or not. We went if it was a planned trip. We knew how to dress and never got frost bite. From there, we'd ride a trail for an hour further to go ice fishing.
The trail to the lake wound through a thick spruce and maple forest. The trail (cut with chain saws) was barely wider than our snow machines. On days when the snow was heavy on the branches, it was like a winter wonderland. At night, it was eerie, but beautiful also.
Some nights up at their cottage the temperatures dipped to -35 to-40F. You could hear the trees cracking in the cold when you went out one last time to the outhouse before bed. Man, that outhouse seat was c,c,cold!!!
(It was 72-75F inside with a cozy huge barrel woodstove in the cottage)
Such great memories
five feet? You can drive a locomotive and all the cars on ice that thick.
Two stories. When my dad was stationed at Stewart Air Force Base near Little Britain, NY in the early to mid 60s, a bunch of us kids used to cut/hack out pieces of ice and ride them down the creek using poles for guiding. That is, until one of my friends mothers spotted us and told all the other mothers, including my own. That ended that. And we were only 7 to 8 years old. The other story is I used to go ice fishing on Ochoco Reservoir east of Prineville, OR in the mid 80s. The ice was about 9 to 12 inches thick. It was kind of freaky being on top of it, and hearing and feeling it crack every so often.
five feet? You can drive a locomotive and all the cars on ice that thick.
You bet, wasn't it how the Allies in WWII were able to supply parts of Russia, by driving truck convoys over frozen water?
Dad grew up north of Eau Claire, WI. I forgot exactly what he told me about what's "safe" for being on the ice, but it's one heck of a lot less than what is shown in the chart in an early post, something like two or four inches to drive a pickup on, we did it many times for ice fishing. Obviously, that's got to be "solid" ice, you have to be careful near the shore, and anywhere a lake is fed from a stream, ice can be much thinner near moving water. Best to err on the side of caution, but yeah, five feet of ice could probably hold a locomotive. I remember crossing Salisbury Lake at 90 mph on a hopped-up Ski-Do, being closer to the ground really provides a greater sense of speed than even a motorcycle does.
In Klamath Falls, Oregon, people used to go ice skating out on the big lake. But there are many hot springs in the area, so there were patches of ice that were thin and people fell through and some drowned. So they dug out a pond next to the lake that was about the size of a football field, but only a few feet deep and the people did their skating there.
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