by Haris
With grave sadness I bring this report to you: the ice on Lake Michigan proper has been melting at an alarming rate and is nearly gone. We did our best to reach for it by driving north from Chicago but, alas, only icicles remain of the mighty masses of frozen water that were there just weeks ago. Surprising, given that the water by the shore was encrusted under a thin sheet of cracking stuff—it's clearly still cold enough out there.
On Friday I took a short walk from the office to the Oak Street beach to verify that it is possible to launch form the beach. Frozen white was losing ground to sand and water there.
Saturday, the four of us launched from Carol Beach just north of IL/WI border in search of infamous ice caves of Lake Michigan.
Bill was elated as he cracked his way across yet another ice patch. I believe this was his first winter paddle of the season and the smile never left his face. Sure beats UIC pool for a work-out! Things got even better when we saw an Atlas standing dead smack in the middle of the Winthrop Harbor with a Nordkapp on his shoulders.
Turns out it was just Russ playing his usually open water tricks on an ice floe. Next, Dan took his turn in the program of the day to display the mastery of cold water by rolling over and over again in the water that was just above freezing. The air was still in the 30's too. Brrr! … but fun to watch. Don't be alarmed, folks, Dan does this on a regular basis. In fact, he noted, with emphasis, that his religion forbids him to travel south of north IL border and he normally spends the warm months of the summer somewhere in the North Atlantic learning French from the whales under the water. Note a distinct hump on the back—I bet that has something to do with protection from the cold.
Watching all of this activity with my brand new waterproof camera in hand I didn't even notice how I myself ended up on a small iceberg while in pursuit of the merry crowd. It is fun to be on 'solid' ground in the middle of the lake. Getting out and having lunch there would not be very difficult at all. I distinctly recall how impressed I once was by seeing a picture of an adventurer in a magazine doing just that. All I had on hand is the brand new CASKA member water bottle so I took a refreshing sip from it. You can get a free CASKA membership by purchasing one yourself if you click here. The color almost matches the Great Lake so you can have the feel of it even when you are thirsty at home or in the office.
All in all we paddled 3 miles south to a structure of an unknown origin and purpose. Even Dan, who spent 15 years in the Zion nuclear plant and who paddles these waters regularly, could not tell us what that iceberg-looking thing on the horizon was. The guessing game got even more interesting when the 'thing' grew legs as we got closer. Looked much like a frozen grove of trees … except nothing around it was cover in ice at all?
In the end, a beautiful day of paddling on the first warmish day of the 2010 paddling season. Great company, pure water, still plenty of ice to enjoy and weather as warm as you can ask for. Poggies were still needed even for those of us who did not roll… No flying Asian carp yet either.
Thanks, guys, for a sweet ride!
