Icekhana

{Auto} Gymkhana events are time and/or speed events in an automobile (borrowed from equestrian). These can feature obstacles such as cones, tires, and barrels. The driver must maneuver through a predetermined "track" performing many different driving techniques. What separates gymkhana from traditional autocross events is that the gymkhana requires drivers to perform reversals, 180 degree spins, 360 degree spins, parking boxes, figure 8s, and other advanced skills. Drifting is also encouraged where helpful or necessary. Essentially, a gymkhana is any event featuring a starting point, a finish line and some sort of "obstacle" to get through, around, or by, all within a certain time limit. 

Icekhana is gymkhana on a frozen lake; with the gymnastics we had on a ride to big island on Tonka it was {Fatbike} IceKhana. 

This spring is actually really great for me. The ice isn't melting and it's making a fantastic playground. I ask my buddy Josh to join me on a mixed adventure to try and ride fatbikes to the big island on Tonka. I made the trip earlier in the year and it was awesome. At that time the ice was thick and hard as stone. I used studded tires and leaned into the gears pushing the speed over 20 at times.

This weekend it was soft and we had to swim out to the ice sheet. I know the pressure ridge is going to be open and I expect a pond in the middle that will allow for a lot of swimming. 

We both don drysuits, PFDs (in our backpacks if it's warranted but they still float in a pack so it's like we have them on), and a heavy layer of fleece to hold the cold water at bay while we swim.

Onto the bikes for the first 1,000 feet. We hug shore and walk the deep parts. The first task is to get swimming and check the seals. Josh is starting to understand the brilliance of a drysuit.

I've been using one since 2003 so time has expunged my emotional memory of the first swim. I still remember my first ice dive pictured below. I'm waiting to go in and I'm so excited I don't know what to do.

On to the ice after the dry suits pass the test. We walk out about waist deep before we can belly-flop onto the ice and roll quickly way from the soggy edge. I say soggy because it's very clay like when it's rotten. The ice bends and slowly sinks before it breaks.

It's not long before I overheat and want to go swimming so I head right over to the nearest open water and crash through. Bust some ice, swim around, and encourage Josh to come in. He's a little freaked out.

After the controlled swim we have to pass open water of unknown depth. I cross first so I can feed information back to Josh to help even out the skill gaps between us. He's really freaked out but I keep asking if he's having a good time because I catch him laughing and smiling at times.

Once we are in the water we need to try and get out. When we jumped in we had no idea what the exit looked like or how far we would have to swim to get to the ice. It turned out we had to swim about 75 feet to water that was almost too deep to touch.

Josh is starting to enjoy it, if only a tiny bit.

It's not long before the summer sun makes mush of the ice. The top 5 inches turns to mush. The largest body of water sumps as the weight of the snow and water press the middle down and give the illusion that you're going to fall through. This happens over and over but I know there is lots of ice below me and even if there isn't, I get to cool off.

We make it to the island, hike a short time and then head back before the sun makes riding impossible  As it is, we flatten the tires and ride as if it's fresh snow. Walking would take way too long.

Back at the gap we swim across without much excitement.

The video below is a short clip of the swim across. Josh pushes his bike in and then enters for the swim. I try but, well, you'll see. I was filming and didn't have the control to push my bike in.

Once we are done with the ride we have a little time left to go boating. The rivers are already flowing too fast for a casual packraft out and back. We check a few spots and its roaring and full of foam. We check the maps and find a protected waterway close to Minneapolis for about an hour of boating.

I estimate the current at 3 or 4 knots so paddling upstream is hard if you can't stay out of the heavy current.

We find an old drain and it's a sure thing, we are going in.

It closes off within a few 100 feet.

We'll need to return for this one. With all the paint it's probably really interesting.

We started out swimming around a bridge then biking around to get to the ice. We zig zag around the bays crashing though the ice. Swim a circle around one island then bee line to the big island. Run around, back on the bike, retrace our route, inflate the rafts, enter a drain, pass under a train bridge and finish the IceKhana course in record time and on that first place finish good bye.

notICE

It's hard to pass up rotten ice diving. It's more fun to play in and on than dive under. This deep into the ice diving season I've seen about all the ice diving I care to but being creative with soft ice is fun.

My regular crew has been jumping ice every weekend since the lakes skinned over in December. I've made it out many times but I've had other distractions. I've been diving ice since 2003, I think, so with 10 seasons of ice and maybe 150 ice dives I don't mind missing a few here and there. 

The one thing I always make time for is Ice In and Ice Out. Last year it warmed so fast the ice pulled away from shore and was gone before the next weekend. 

This year is great. The ice is crap but it's not melting in the cold. I expect to go out next weekend and play on it again.

We cut the hole as usual but the ice is so poor it melts out and gets lumpy within an hour or so. We measure it at 16 inches but it can barely hold the weight of the gear sled. I estimate that at 400 pounds. The sled becomes a boat for 20 feet while we ferry it from shore to ice strong enough to hold the 400 odd pounds. It takes 3 guys with grimacing looks to push it up onto the better ice and return it to shore without swamping it.

It's an hour or so later and we are mostly just playing in the water and ice. We chop at the ice and it candles into long thin spears. I'll show a picture later but for now that's what's filling in most of the hole. You may be wondering what happened to my sunglasses. Well, it's a short story. I put my head under and the ice broke the frame and the lens popped out. One lens is still better than nothing so I make due.

Joe and I have a good time playing in the hole while Trinity and Popo try and get some serious diving done. Joe and I don't stop Popo so the yellow line is going to a diver while Terry tends and Robert is the rescue diver if needed. Sure we goof off a lot but we take the divers' needs seriously and if they throw my tank into the hole, I'd be after Popo in a minute or less with Robert and Terry tending and Joe backing me up.

Sometimes, everyone is in the hole and we are splashing around like children. That's not so bad. I've said it before but if you cut a hole in a frozen lake and you need to take turns playing in it, you have the best friends. 

 I can't get enough so I just hang out and Robert goes for a dive. PoPo reviews some maps for a new dive site and Joe just hangs out messing about with smashing chunks of ice.

Ok, about now you may wonder why I'm still sitting in the hole. It's weightless. Standing on the ice for hours is tiresome. The water is 36 degrees and the air about the same. So I don't get cold and weightless is better.

When ice melts it gets porous more than it gets thinner. When it freezes it gets thicker but melting it gets weaker but not much thinner. The below photo shows ice from below and how it's getting spongy. In winter this would be as smooth as glass but now it's cut deeply with holes.

Last bit is a video of what it's like to dive in and around this ice hole. The video is about 4:45 so its a little long but I cut as much out as I could. If you find something dull jump forward 20 seconds and something will happen. Enjoy and I'll put up a pot luck post soon that has some Arrowhead video and other good bits that don't have enough content to stand on their own.

We expect the ice to weaken and allow for a larger swimming pool to play with so you're going to get one more of these, but this is the last post on ice diving for the year that I expect. I have a bike ride Saturday and then more ice on Sunday so we'll see if either is worth a show and tell. 

I owe you pictures of candled ice. 

Good bye.

All-Temperacheer

I am fortunate enough to have MLK day off so after I considered world peace and abandon the idea, I grabbed the studded bike and went out on the river where I would find some peace or at least no people which is the same as far as I can tell. The weather guessers told me it was suppose to be cold and get colder so I was happy to test some gear configurations but they got it wrong and it warmed up to about -1. I was hoping for the reported -14. Anyway, I overheated some and had to walk and cool down at times.

When its really cold out the rivers are almost safe to ride but you need to use every bit of spider sense to assess the ice. With it so warm I had to turn and run twice. Well maybe not run but I wasn't wasting any time getting the hell away for the scary stuff. I'm a real tough guy in my fancy drysuit but put me in civilian cloths and I could pinch a hole in my pants running away from it. I retreat twice withing 15 minute of getting on the ice but get my sea legs and start cutting in and out of the weakest of ice.

The temps are low but I can't tell in all my gear. I'm dressing in thin windproof layers that I roast in if I  really start railing on it for speed. I unzip to cool down or stop and lay down on the ice. That works well but scares the hell out of people on shore. I have no idea how long these rides go but 4 hours is the low end. I just ride and plan things to do in summer. If you want to find places to kayak, winter is the ticket.

Below: The thin ice is maybe 3 inches so it's fine but can't be trusted at anything but slow speeds. I figure I can hug shore and if I do break through it will be so shallow I can carry it to shore or better ice and only get a wet foot.

Not true. Shore is getting ground water flow. I think these are springs or breaks in the ground water that release into the river. It makes sense and when I did some cave diving in Florida the ground water would find all kinds of cracks and Minnesota has the same sandstone/limestone (aka Karst)

This is wild. It made me skid to a stop. It's the foot print of an oak tree. 

I had to climb a hill of dirt and sticks and ride about a mile of road to get past a lot of scary ice. The cliff or palisade of the lower river means shore is also deep water with the springs. I have to head out to mid channel and that's faster moving water and thinner ice. When I return it's awesome.

I find a Tiki!
Compared to the graffiti I've found in drains this sucks but it will do.

In summer this strainer would be a portage but now I thread the needle and pass with only a few sticks in the face.

I have to get off the backwater and find this road. It's a dead end on both ends.

The road leads me to a large fence with a strong odor and signs telling me I'm being watched so I go to the otherway and get dumped out on this sandbar.

I leave the bike and walk out to get a better photo of the 34 degree steam.

To get off the sandbar and back to mainland and the security of the shelf ice of shore I have to cross a channel and it's popping and cracking. Part of it is from the cold. When I scuba on very cold days the ice cracks and pops all day, some very loudly so I know not to worry about the powerful cracking I hear. The minor cracks make me watch every move. I take this photo mid crossing. You can see the ice is over 4 inches so I know that's plenty (when I'm in my drysuit)

This is the distance I need to close. I'm mid channel and the ice gets thinner. I walk the bike so I can feel the cracking if I need to retreat.

The crossing complete I find the hobo camp from last springs, Songlines but this time I get up close. Back then I think it was occupied. The trash is ugly. I see too much trash these days. Every place I go is covered in trash. Scuba... trash, Hike... trash... Ride...trash....trash,trash,trash.

I wanted to find a date to tell me how active this camp is.

I'll probably go back and pick this crap up so I don't find it when I packraft this summer. The spring floods will move it and I'll find it later on. I'll leave a sign about how their mom doesn't work here and they need to pick up after themselves but if their mother cared, they would not be hobo's.

Leaving hobo camp the shore gets steep and the ice follows. 

Is there water under that shelf or more ice? 

The shore usually continues under water so we could be in deep water if I get it wrong.

I just cut my way out to better ice and find some speed. 

I've been on a lot of ice but this is the best surface hoar frost. 

Hoar frost is radiation frost when ice forms spicules. When air get very cold and molecular water is forced out of the air and it grows on other ice forming these ferns.

Getting close to the end my ride the ice is getting reliable and the trash on shore is every few feet.

The water in the background is the end of my shore without a dry land portage but this tree was interesting. It's entombed in hoar frost.

I didn't make it to the source of the warm water but I did inch out onto the ice until it cracked and started to sink before taking this photo. The wind is blowing hard to the south making the scalloped rim of ice you see. I look over the edge and guess it's maybe 3 feet deep.

This is the end of the line for me. I turn it and return home via ice but jump off to road to avoid the crossing at hobo camp and the bad shore line a few miles south.

In total I'm out about 4 hours, cover about 20 miles and my digital thermometer reports -6.

The weatherman got it wrong but I still cheered for the colder temps. Winter is only as bad as your gear and a little bit about believing you can be comfortable in the cold. Like chores, once you start it's not so bad and you can get lots of stuff done.The bark of cold is worse then the bite or should I say bike.