An ice caper

This past few weeks have been quite exhilarating academically. In deference towards those of you who may not share my enthusiasm for C, DNA, VMD, GROMACS, WHAM, and parallel tempering, I'll let you peruse the links at your leisure. I will not, however, let you escape without an accounting of my latest Wisconsin escapade: CROSSING LAKE MENDOTA. Yep, you heard me write! Me, walking on water, and having a good ole' time doing so. :)

Last week my roommate, Sean, expressed his year-old desire to cross Lake Mendota. Always in search of adventure, I was more than supportive. Consequently, on Saturday we set out to cross frozen Lake Mendota from Governor's Island to Picnic Point (see map below).

We initially had some concern about the ice being thick enough but it turned out to be more than a foot thick (perhaps even thick enough for a car... tune in next time!). The ice had some remarkable kaleidoscopic designs and was thrust up at certain "fault lines," a small scale example of how mountains come to be. Very nice.

Last of all, I include a panoramic video from the middle of the lake. If you squint really hard, it almost appears as if we've displaced the Salt Flats to Wisconsin!

It was a great adventure that I hope to experience each winter. Next time I hope to not have such a near miss where I almost experienced the ice from underneath! (When there is a mound of snow and ice on an otherwise flat lake, it means that someone has taken ice from somewhere else and put it there. It would not be a good idea to walk where the ice was removed...) The location of said event was where the black "X" is on the map.