Your words like ice fall on the ground
Breaking the silence without a sound
Oh familiar strangers with nothing to say
Searching in the darkness
Fading out of sight…
Stone cold… rainbow

“A mere 15,000 years ago, during the Ice Age, most of northern North America lay under the grip of colossal ice sheets. The effects of the advancing and retreating glaciers can be seen in the headlands of Cape Cod, the Finger Lakes of New York, and the hills of Michigan, but nowhere is the glacier’s mark upon the land more impressive than in Wisconsin. Indeed, the State has lent its name to the most recent series of glacial advances and retreats, the Wisconsin Glaciation lasting from about 100,000 to 10,000 years ago.” – NPS [Read More]And of course among those impressive Wisconsin glacial icons, Devil’s Lake State Park is the star. 500 foot cliffs adorned with unique rock formations rise on 3 sides of the kidney shaped lake. These wooded “bluffs” (as they are called here) are solid cores of long gone mountains, later they stood as Islands in a shallow sea. Then during the last glaciation they were striped bare again. Interestingly they remained pretty much barren except for a few sparse trees until the early 1900′s when forests suddenly took over the hills. To my knowledge the oldest tree in the park has been dated around 500 years and stands on the southern side of the east bluff. But I’m getting ahead of myself. . .

As that last glacier retreated about 10,000 years ago, it left alluvial dams at both ends of the Devil’s Lake gorge which are easily seen from the air. The glacier also dropped tons of stone randomly across the land for a few miles in all directions. Of course over the last couple hundred years humans have done a good job picking up all the stones, (humans are very good at picking up stones) yet a walk in one of the many un-cleared forests can sometimes suggest walking on mars after a massive terraforming operation. It’s obvious these forests have sprouted from what once must have looked very much like mars or the moon for that matter. Littered among the trees you will find everything from small bowling ball sized rocks to big auto-sized boulders scattered everywhere on the forest floor.

I imagine the lake and these old time worn mountains don’t notice the coming and going of the seasons these days. The retreat of a little snow and a few inches of ice must mean very little in a geologic scale. Yet on the other hand, in our little moment of time we are pretty excited to see a bit of open water along the the south east shore of Devil’s Lake. Yesterday as the sun began to fall and a cold wind funned through from the north, we stood on the sandy beach and threw rocks. We tossed every stone we could find at the offending ice still just a few yards from shore, and told it in no uncertain terms that is was time to go! “Get out ice!”, ” Get off my lake!!” I’m sure from a distance it would seem like a half-witted exorcism, and in some ways it probably is. Some old guy in a plaid hat with snap on muffs was probably offended that we; 1. have offspring and, 2. teach them such things.

So in the next few days we will for the first time this season, launch out into our little lake. Of course we will be restricted to the somewhat narrow leads that are just opening up in the ice. I am excited to get out and have a ceremonial spring “ice roll”. This year Mary wants to join in my ritual. Yes, I’ve warned her. Sure I find it fun, but I’m a bit of a sadist. I’ve grown to take joy in the nice “ice-pic-in-the-head” sensation you get when you come back up. But it’s not for everyone. . .

Further Reading:

- Devil’s Lake State Park
- Frozen – Article about paddling in Icy Water
- Symptoms of hypothermia

- Effects of hypothermia Table

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