Lake Ice

I remember being stunned the first time I saw Lake Champlain covered in ice (what with growing up around the ocean and all), and witnessing people actually walking on these ice sheets of questionable thickness. The next year's winter (2005-2006) was disappointingly warm, though, and I hadn't seen a good freeze since until this winter. It made me worry about the future of that proud winter tradition, taking your 3,000 pound vehicle onto the lake and doing donuts for hours. Its future wasn't looking too promising as I took this shot at Oak Ledge Park, just outside of downtown Burlington. The ice had broken into thousands of pieces, some of them four or five feet long. Still, with a little hunting, I found the ice I'd been looking for at Mallet's Bay (see second photograph.)

We had an exceptionally warm weekend, and I could see all the ice fishing shanties had been pulled onshore. It was a bit of a slushy mess, and I didn't dare walk on it. Still, the spirit of winter adventure is alive and well- that tiny black speck in the middle of the lake is five guys piled onto one ATV, who went speeding off into the sunset. I wished them well, but I did take a few pictures of them, just in case that ice didn't hold out...