Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Expensive Oops!!

Be careful out there!!

yikes. probably dang lucky the vehicle towing it did not go through.

Falling through the ice is one of my fears.

Don't ya hate it when that happens?

Wow!!

They trying to turn it into an icebreaker upon tow ?

SW MI has had a major cold snap and a fair amount of lake effect snow. Nothing compared to the 54 inches that is coming off Lake Erie and hitting PA but still plenty bitter cold. Despite the amazing cold, our pond ice is still quite tricky. The center is nice and hard, probably 8" ice. The edges still aren't safe for a quad. On my first efforts of clearing it I went through. It was the edge where we have a bed of fallen oak leaves and lots of ground heat coming out of the banks and the shallow waters and keeping that edge quite soft.

It was shallow about 3'. The way my one foot cracked through I had time to shift weight to the other leg and try to twist away from the crack but then a big piece under me broke into about 20 small pieces and I went down on my back. I was floating somewhat on all the shards of 2" thick broken ice. My son was clearing with a light snowblower halfway across the pond and didn't see it. My one boot and leg from knee down was under but I pulled it up onto the 'bed' of shards and rolled the opposite way from shore back to the firm ice and was able to get up. My carhart coat and back side of my pants and boot were soaked but the front half was dry. I still hustled into the house into dry clothes.

We pushed the bank snow back about 3 feet and had near zero temps the next day and next night. I fished all the shards out of the hole and the next day it was glass clear ice filling that hole. But still by the banks, wherever the heat is still coming out of the ground and where the leaves insulate it, is still weak. Even after 2 nights of near zero temps and exposed (shoveled clear) ice and cleared banks, the quad last night still created a big moving wave of ice in front of it and created new stress cracks in the area of the first hole.

Strange how that ground heat and shore/banks heat just takes time to come out.

It is eery to see a lightweight quad with plow (maybe 700 pounds? certainly no more weight than 3 or 4 adults and weight evenly spread out over 4 tires) cruise across the ice and watch the ice dip behind it and heap up in front of it like a wave. It must be the motion that sets up the wave and not the weight of the atv itself?

Either way, after near zero temps all day today and another night of below zero on those exposed banks I hope we have solid banks and solid ice and can flood it a few more times. Kids are so geeked to have Christmas break and to be able to use the ice. Most winters in SW MI the lake (lake michigan) keeps the temps warm and we get wet heavy lake effect snow that we can't safely get off the ice. This year, nice fluffy snow easy to blow off and a good cold snap to get the ice off to a great start!

But I agree, be careful, never be out there alone and have your emergency plan in place. (Oh...and when you go to clear the ice and it is early season ice...don't have any electronics in your pocket, i was glad I left my wallet and cell phone in the house..)

They were using chain saws to cut the ice and hopefully pull it out....

I drove by there this morning and it looked like they sawed through the ice all the way to the shore and then pulled then pulled it out. That would have been a good video!!