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Ice Cliffs on Lake Michigan near South Haven January 2010, originally uploaded by Go Kayak Now.

I had an excellent paddle along the cliffs on Saturday afternoon. I tried to explore all the areas where the cliffs were highest and were the brash ice was loose. Paddling amongst the flows and pancake ice is a serene experience. It is otherworldly, and sometimes violent as ice cracks, breaks off and falls into Lake Michigan. Other times it is more subtle where you hear a grating, or sliding noise as a giant piece of ice tumbles over. The loose crumbly bits of ice that float loose next to larger icebergs rub against one another. This makes a sound like a cocktail shaker with a martini in it. Am I the olive?

Temperatures were in the high thirties, rain sprinkled and spat a few times, but then the sun broke out among the clouds.

My gore-tex drysuit is in for repairs with Kokatat, so I wore my Brooks tuiliq and IR neoprene pants, I was plenty warm except my feet. I had a warmer pair, but I lost one in my ICE in the surf. I have a lonely single fleece lined bootie in the garage to remind me of the nasty swim I took on the rocks.

The full gallery of sea kayaking in the ice pictures can be found here:

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Rarely do I get to sea kayak twice in one year along dramatic ice cliffs. This winter was especially harsh. We had serious snowfall throughout January and February. My sea kayak trip along the ice in January yielded some very intense photographs of the ice cliffs rimed with frost. Doug and I got to see a lot of amazing caves and very dangerous looking dangling icicles.

This second trip happened to coincide with a very beautiful bright day of sunshine with air temperatures in the high fifties. John Fleming and I played a little hooky on friday to take full advantage of the weather. We chose South Haven this time instead of Saugatuck. I was glad we did.

It was so warm I elected to risk not wearing my drysuit. The air was cooler over the lake. However the sun burned off all the fog caused by the melting ice and snow on shore. We launched our sea kayaks in the Black River in South Haven and paddled out of the channel in relatively short order. The wind was off shore at about 10 knots. The southern shore looked like it had more brash ice tucked in to the cliffs. Based on this we elected to head north where there was no brash ice.

Brash for those new to the ice is the term used in marine environments for ice that is loosely packed of ice that is either melting, or reforming into solid surfaces. If you ever see a time elapse of ice melting and reforming you will note that the ice forms from brash, to giant pancakes that float around until they all join into a solid surface.

The cliffs we paddled along had tons of sand embeded in their outer edges from the beach. Most of them were around 12 feet high. But in extreme cases we found some cliffs of ice that exceeded 18 feet. It is entirely surreal to be paddling on the Great Lakes along beautiful cliffs and bergs of ice that tower over you next to sandy beaches and condominiums where volleyball nets lay tangled in melting snow banks. The harsh winters we endure do have some paybacks in a dynamic landscape to nose your sea kayak around on a warm spring day. I really enjoyed bringing some one who had not seen it before. You always get to see it again as if it is new.

As usual I got out and hopped around. I seal launched in reverse off of this ice island. Good Fun.

We did have two very alarming experiences that one should note for safety.

One
As it warms the ice is melting and high cliffs are precarious when in melt. We witnesses at least three calving bergs that had absolutely no warning. It is not like it looks on tv folks. There is no giant groan of the glacier like an old man’s knees creaking before a giant slab of ice falls off the main shelf. They literally break off and fall in less than a few seconds. It was great to get close, but afterward we discovered we were really too close based on the bright sunshine. One particular slab the size of a very large truck fell right behind John immediately after this photo was taken.

Two
I remember reading Jon Turk’s Cold Oceans and hearing him say that very subtle shifts in the wind can dramatically change how the ice shifts in a very short amount of time. Jon and I noticed that the wind was pointing a little of the north as well as the east. While we were paddling north this didn’t seem like a big deal. However once we paddled south to head home, the brash ice all packed in against the cliffs. So we were forced to fight through some of the brash and the pancake ice to open water we could spot on the horizon. This felt a little frantic, and perhaps foolish considering Jon kept asking me, “So what happens if the ice moves back in from the open lake.” You’re hosed is what. We got a little lucky that there was open water and bright sunshine. We only fought against the ice for about 10 minutes.

We finished off by rolling a couple times in Lake Michigan. It was great to get wet after paddling the Superfund sites where I had that feeling my boat my be ruined by the Kalamazoo River.

I feel very fortunate to have gotten out to see this scenery twice in one year. Ray Boucher of Naturally Superior Adventures near Wawa reported to me on Facebook that Lake Superior is still frozen solid. Hold tight Ray, it’ll melt.

Check out all of John Fleming’s Pictures of Sea Kayaking in the Ice. I forgot my Pentax. But John and I passed the camera back and forth during the trip.

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Flotnar 4th Annual Ice paddle on Lake Michigan in South Haven

Jim Viviano and I decided to try for an Icepaddle two weeks ago. The ice cliffs on the Lake Michigan piled quite high this year. The ice cliffs on the Great Lakes form as the warmer water begins to erode the edges of the ice pack. Then wave action piles the remaining ice up into cliffs, which will melt and refreeze until they are completely thawed.

We loaded our sea kayaks up at the Black River DNR boat launch. The dredger was digging up mud for the powerboats to have a deeper draft through the channel. Jim and I quickly passed through the channel and then were astonished to see the ice had formed a narrow band between open Lake, and the ice cliffs.

The ice blocked us from viewing the cliffs up close, pancake pack ice was solid to the shore about two-three hundred yards out. There was also a moving ice debris field that was on the open lake and drifting in. We had no where to go. We pushed our sea kayaks through some brash ice to paddle in what looked like a little ice pond that was a quarter mile long and 500 yards wide. We did find some spots on the south side of the pier where i could get out and take some pictures.

Jim and I performed a few eskimo rolls in the river mouth and paddled back in. Despite being defeated by the ice, it was a short bright sunny day. I am continually astonished at how different the ice can be each spring. In my first years out on the Lake 2003-2004 the ice was very high and dramatic, but it was easy to get out through the river and then very close to 20-30 foot ice cliffs.

Our winter was especially long and cold this year with more snow than usual. This provided a more confined paddle, but fun nonetheless. What I always like is the feeling that if one didn’t know they were looking at Lake Michigan, you could almost feel it was Greenland, or Baffin Island. The dynamic nature of Lake Michigan for sea kayaking, and surf kayaking continues to entice and deliver. My thanks to Jim.

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2007 brought in an usual amount of snowfall and cold towards the end of January. This caused a serious amount of ice to build up along Lake Michigan. When the ice builds up towards a mile or so off shore, when it melts the waves from wind across the lake pile it up on shore in stacks. Further helping this rapid pseudo geological process is a cold snap quickly following a melt. All of these events happened in sequence this year with the culmination of a 58 degree Fahrenheit, bright sunny nearly windless day.

Jim Svensson, Jason Roon and myself launched from the South Haven Ship Museum on the Black River. We paddled out along the channel and then paddled north. As soon as we crossed the mouth of the pier we were treated to a long unbroken series of shelves and cornices of ice along shore.

The average was about 5-8 feet from the surface of the water. The high end was about 10 feet. This is not as high as I’ve seen it in the past where 20-30 feet ice shelves tower over the lake’s edge. But it was great nonetheless. The warm sunshine and calm conditions made up for the lack in verticality.

The three of us paddled along until I found a low spot to get out and take pictures from a vantage spot. Unfortunately I’ve discovered the Achilles heel of the Pentax Optio. Bright sun and water droplets may ruin as many pictures as waterproofing may save. I couldn’t even see the lcd in bright sun. And due to this factor I couldn’t clear the lens.

I think I got some ok pictures nonetheless.

It was great to be back on the water in my silhouette on my lake with the ice along shore. It masked the familiar shoreline in every direction. And I forgot about all the houses, the familiar condo complexes, and focused on the ice. My eye followed the shape of the ice from the surface of the water to the sky, wallowing in the crevices, and cutbacks like I was paddling in Greenland, or Baffin Island. This is one of the best times to paddle Lake Michigan. It is a transportive moment where I forget that I am on the same old lake, because I see stacks of ice as big as Volkswagen busses falling from the shelf and landing in the lake.

We didn’t catch it on camera but a piece at least as big as a mini-cooper fell less than a foot from me while we paddled. I got the Disney water ride splash and a good laugh out of it.

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This I have to write down,

We stopped at McDonalds on the way to South Haven to paddle this morning. I hadn’t been in a Mcdonalds since some time last year. Apparently it is possible to pay for fast food with a credit card now. I was stunned as this was not possible for years, nor the last time I was in a McDonalds. I brought up this fascinating fact as I was paying for my meal, (with cash). The cashier says, “We’ve had credit card machines for a year.”

“Wow,” I said, it must be close to a year since I’ve eaten Mcdonald’s then.” The look of sheer incredulity was worth the price of the egg McMuffin.
“Where do you eat out?” She asked.

“Well I don’t, usually.” I answered. I started getting a-you’re not from this country, and we’re gonna call homeland security look from the folks behind the counter. I quickly dropped the subject, because my friends started backing away to disassociate themselves from me after this brief dialog.

Now the paddling part of the program.

Ok, I need to start remembering all my gear. I need a protocol droid to look after me. Someone tell me if they see a c3p0 for keeping track of paddling gear at Canoecopia.

“Master-Keith, (imagine tony daniels voice here) I believe you forgot your spraydeck!”

“Thanks 3P0, where’s my Whitewater/Greendland paddle?”

We had four paddlers show up at the South Haven Pier for the ice paddle. The last frosty holdouts of winter clung to the shore like limpets. Shelves were on average, 5-8 feet high, not as lofty as some years where 10-15 is the norm, but we had some excitement. I as, alluded to above, forgot my sprayskirt. And Matt had a brief unplanned swim. I saw a speedy two footer curling over and then take him by surprise. The same wave broke over me, filling my kayak obviously, and then I had to paddle out to pump out, while Jason got him back in his kayak. Luckily he was wearing a nylon drysuit, so he was pretty toasty already.

I managed to pump out and continue on my way.

Also I found out today, drybag is a misnomer. I held my camera in my lap in a drybag to shoot the photos posted here. But the drybag was 1/3 full of water when I got the camera out to shoot the pictures posted here. At least the camera’s ok.

I also got to see Tom Deater pull off a nice instinctive low brace, not bad for a second time on open water.

I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.