LateIce

On the heals of the Tonka Ride, I'm trying to play catch up so this post is a day after the last.

A late season lake ice dive on Calhoun. 

This video [ areyouguyssknubadivin? ] is from my good buddy Hydro. It will take about 3 minutes but it's high speed and fun to watch. It's the usual crew, Trinity, Popo, Hydro, Scubafreek and me (arcFlash). Its an average day on the ice, this video compresses maybe an hour or two into 3 minutes. Please watch.

Again I find myself out on the ice with people on shore asking if we need help. They say silly things like , "Are you cold?" and all I can say is, "No, is your dog walking you?" My point being that we are jumping in and out of the water and laughing an carrying on like little kids. How could people misunderstand play and real world human drama. We are 200 feet from shore and making no effort to get off the ice. 

The ice hole is chopped and hand cut so it's a little rough on the edges. We make minimum effort.

Joe and I use my Otter sled (he he he, Otter) to float gear to and from shore. 

It has enough capacity that Hydro takes a ride while I stabilize the stern and giggle. Trinity pulls us to shore using the ice lines.

Beach head landing after the pull.

The ice is still 15 inches thick on this small lake. We are barely able to jump enough to break off a think chunk to use as an ice boat. It's rare that we can get an ice block that holds a person.

Left: I push the raft. Right: I can't explain that.

Hydro on his surf-boat.

I use dive fins so I can push the ice and have more control in the water. Hydro goes without fins and spends more time on the ice. We specialize in ice play. he he he.

There is so much ice slush that you can't see through it. After an hour of breaking ice it's all slush.

Trinity finds this bone on the last dive about 30 feet down. Last time he found something like this the University carbon dated it to 64,000 years ago and part of an extinct bison. I don't remember the details so don't quote me but it's close enough. I found a bottle that was laying on the bottom for over 100 years and it looked new and 200 year old shipwrecks are easy to find so a few thousand years isn't too difficult and part of the Time Machine that is scuba.

We go late into the year and play on the ice and find an old bone. Both indicate the end. The sun is too high for winter to last. The ice will melt like Frosty in the Greenhouse. The bone will only indicate that we are all doomed. Some of us leave behind evidence of our time on earth and others just a small pool of water that will dry up and be lost in time.

The winter wind will return after a short spell and bring Frosty back to life. Snow will once again pile up on the sands of time. Someday, someplace, someone will find evidence that our bones once played in the summer sun.

I'm sorry that's kind of dark but on that sober message; the end of the day/post is upon us. Live Well.