As we are known to do, I went out with a friend for a full moon adventure last night, staying far apart mind you, which isn’t hard to do out on a lake in a kayak. We’ve been kayaking in the lake lots of times in spring when there’s still some ice on the lake, and it can be really fun. Over the weekend my wife and I went out with the kids, pushing through slushy ice, chunks of thicker stuff, watching the light wind move it around in big sheets, etc. It’s always interesting.
Well the wind blew all the remaining ice down to one end of the lake yesterday, so we paddled down there and pushed around in it, until we came across a HUGE iceberg. I mean, yes, we were in the middle of 10 acres of crushed up ice, but this was different. There was a big white area maybe 20' wide and 150' long and we could paddle/push/pull the kayaks right up and ON it, it was that solid. We were able to even get out of the boats and walk around on it - mind you, we did not go anywhere beyond an arm’s length from the kayaks. But it was solid, and wasn’t going to suddenly split in two like a cartoon. Any breakage would have been slow and predictable, based on the size of this thing. I’ve stood on smaller icebergs other years, but in the daylight and in the presence of a powerboat full of potential rescuers.
So we stood next to our boats, about 10 feet apart, drinking a beer in the moonlight in the middle of the lake. It was utterly bizarre, and at the same time so familiar, as we’ve spent so much time on the lake at night. The strangest part was getting back in the boats, and “launching” them off the iceberg and into... water filled with more ice. In fact, while we were stationed there, another big section of slushy ice came downwind and it was quite a bit more work to get back to open water. No problem, just more work.
Very entertaining. Generally safe. Social Distance achieved easily. And another memorable full moon adventure for the books.
I did have to walk by my truck (it’s stored where we launched the kayaks) and it glared at me as I chose to go have fun rather than fix it. Maybe tonight. Or... maybe this weekend. Or whatever. I’ll be sure to update Oppo when I get it running.