And the stuff that might be perfectly safe in one spot, but just a skim toward the bank? And might change year to year as bars move and change? Or might have overflow on top?
Now I gotta tell ice stories.......
These are from the years in the Tik Chiks
We'd had about 4ft of snow then it warmed and stared raining, typical coastal Alaskan crap..
I had this kid show up from Montana to visit for a while and he gotten there just as all that powder was turning to slush.
We'd been hold'ed for like ten days waiting for the now 2 ft of water on top the ice to cap over so we could get out.
Finally about 2 to 3 inches of ice developed and we headed out one morning..all was well, great day..
I had a Skandic at the time but I'd put him on the old trusty Tundra that should'a been dead years prior..but they just don't know when to quit.
On our way home, about a 1/2 mile out we had to cut across a large lake. It'd warmed considerably as the cold morning had now become a 40 degree afternoon.
The ice was still OK but it was slick as cat schit, no way you could even stand up on it.
I was about 100 yards from making the shore when my track broke though that skim of ice along the edge of the lake you mentioned.
I was probably doing 40 or so and my skis were keeping the front end on top the ice, I'd nailed it and made my way to shore blowing the ice up behind me all the way...
Under that few inches we'd been riding on there was still 2 foot of water on top of at least 3+ foot of good ice...
It didn't pose a real hazard to me but the kid on the Tundra that'd been faithfully following me all day dove straight into the 5 foot wide channel my track was blowing out of that skinny ice. It was so slick he could neither turn or stop before he just plopped right in.
I got shut down once on solid ground and hollered out to him asking him if he was OK as he sat there in the overflow on the swamped Tundra. Said other than being wet all he needed was to change his underwear.
Or the water might have dropped out under it and left a big shelf to break through? Yeah, that stuff. Don't trust it.
I was caribou hunting above the TikChiks with some native guys, we'd left from Aleknagik and had traveled about 125 miles north searching for the herd.
This is early 90's, the Mulchatna herd was 200,000 strong back then, we'd typically get into 20 or 30,000 head at a time.
Being the token white boy, I always brought up the tail of the pack when we traveled.
These Native guys come outta the womb running snow machines, they are really experienced or what may appear to some as being quite insane.
We always traveled together but alone.....we'd all know our destination, and arrive at the same place but we might show up an hour or better apart from each other.
In other words, nobody was waiting around for you and they weren't gonna hold each others hands in a hard spot.
We'd been running hard for a couple of days and gotten into nothing for Caribou so these guys were getting a little edgy and really making time.
I could see a couple from my group a ways ahead of me milling around a river bank, they crossed and were gone before I caught up.
I get up to that spot and I'm looking at this busted to hell ice where they'd crossed. It'd been the only ice bridge in sight, the rest the river was open. All that was left for me to get across on was a triangle shaped shelf of ice about 10 inches thick sticking out from the far bank and hanging about 4 foot above the water, it was about 20 feet away.
I could see about a 1/4 mile ahead of me one of the Native dudes had stopped and was turned around watching me.
He knew they'd left me schit for a crossing......keep in mind, we're all hauling sleds full of gas and gear, we're not just hot-doggin around on high performance machines..
I was on a high bank, the point of the triangle was about 20 feet out there and below me, I'd have to jump for it. Bank to bank was around 50 feet, there was 20 feet of air and water between me and the ice and no doubt it was going to break as soon as I hit it.
I turned around and built up some speed as I headed back to the crossing, I launched off that high bank at about 45 or 50, the ice broke and fell as soon as the weight of my machine came down on it, now it was a ramp, I got air but landed safe and sound on top of the other bank...
It threw me forward pretty hard, just as my face was eating windshield I could see the Native dude go rippin' off.
I'm sure he was chuckling at my antics.....silly white boy...
We got our Caribou, we always did....