Riding Across Mendota - Ice Road Biking

Since winter began, I developed the itch to ride across the frozen Lake Mendota. I check this site regularly for updates on ice thickness from local fishermen. After a couple months of reported thicknesses of 10", I started to build confidence in the endeavor. Then it rained. And got warm. And some guy's shanty on the lake looked like this:

This shanty is on a trailer. The wheels are buried in the ice. Shoulda moved it before it rained.

But, I do live in Wisconsin, and it's February, so it got cold again and froze really nicely. So, this morning I headed out on the lake. Here's a shot of my entrance to Mendota:

By UW Hospitals

About 100 yards out, I ran across my first obstacle: a ribbon of slush. I noticed that 4-wheelers and trailers have been dragged across this ribbon, but it was SOFT and not so confidence-inspiring. A couple shots:

I picked what looked like a sturdy line, and this happened:

Not Cool

Pucker factor. Didn't like this one bit. So I kept riding. I headed toward the sinking shanty, and then on toward Memorial Union:

Smooth sailing to the Union.

Here are some shots in between my journey from the Union to Picnic Point:

Once I was close to Picnic Point, the ice really started to crack and give way a little, so I abruptly turned West and headed back toward the sinking shanty:

A nice handlebar shot facing the Union:

To wrap up, a shot from Bikely of the route:

I'll probably ride a few more times before the weather turns the top layer of ice into slush. I could really use a Mukluk-'twould make life much more fun on adventures such as this.