Pinholica: Pushy and cold

Lake Winnebago is a large, shallow lake, so it freezes pretty well to about two or more feet thick, and in the spring when it starts to break up, the wind drives great sheets of it to pile up in various places on the shore, which are called ice shoves.

Sarah and I went for a walk in Menomonie Park after seeing a report on the local news that it was happening.

As we got there we were surprised to see a lot of traffic on what was still a cold windy day in late February (right after the unseasonable warm spell). As we got near the lake we could see what was going on just down the shore from the park.

We weren't the only ones with this idea. It's quite the social event, with lots of people crossing the ice to get to it.

I remember telling Sarah that this never works, but I took a shot at making one of those multi-frame panoramas that are so popular with the digital cameras. I individually rotated and edited each image before I remembered what I was doing, but it turned out OK after all.

The shove had piled up on the jetty and dock that extends out from the Yacht Club.

This is right next to The Waters, coincidentally designed by William Waters, an event facility formerly owned by the Yacht Club and the American Legion at different times, who both still have offices in the basement.

Going back to the park we had to pass by our greatest German-American, Carl Schurz, a participant in the 1848 revolution that also got Karl Marx kicked out of Germany. He moved to Wisconsin and studied law and became a Senator and Secretary of the Interior. Probably a bad dude.

The ice fishing clubs mark roads around the lake, which have makeshift bridges over the bigger cracks in the ice, with peoples' discarded Christmas trees. These two by the shore were about the last still above water.