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27 fishermen rescued from floating ice chunk in Lake Michigan.

Idiots abound. This happens every year. I never understood the allure of ice fishing.

I grew up on a lake in Michigan. While ice skating, hit a hole in the ice and you're on your lips. My parents never let us play on giant, shifting ice chunks on the shores of Lake Michigan.

But I digress. Back to the idiots:

Authorities say 27 people were rescued from a floating chunk of ice that broke away from shore in the bay of Green Bay in eastern Wisconsin.

No injuries were reported in the incident that happened Saturday morning north of Green Bay, in the arm that's part of Lake Michigan, the Brown County Sheriff's Office reported. Many of the 27 people rescued were ice fishing at the time of the incident.

The chunk of ice floated about three-quarters of a mile during the rescue and was about a mile from the shoreline by the time everyone was brought to solid ground. Authorities said the stranded people were on the separated ice shove for about 90 minutes.

A barge traveling through the bay may have caused the ice chunk to break off the shoreline, the sheriff's office said. Shane Nelson, who was making his first ice fishing excursion, said the noise sounded like somebody had fired a gun.

“We thought it was interesting, got out of our shanty, took a look and people were yelling on the ice, ‘We’re separating,’" Nelson told WLUK-TV.

Airboats from the Brown County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Coast Guard were able to rescue eight passengers at a time.

Shakes head.

[abcnews.go.com]

LiterateHiker 9 Jan 9
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3 comments

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1

As a kid who was very ADD and had a love for the outdoors, I can totally understand getting into pickles in the wild. I would always take "shortcuts" through the woods on my way home from school...which would inevitably cost me HOURS and I NEVER arrived home with dry clothes as it always involved crossing or riding on a particular stream. Add to that I tried swimming in the Housatonic river in CT when I was 16...IN MARCH...three strokes OUT...ONE STROKE BACK...never did THAT again...fell through thin ice at a pond behind the Junior High school in the fall...had to spend half the day in my gym clothes while my school clothes dried...some of us take risks and some of us sit on the sidelines and watch the fun. Ice fishing is a right of passage in the northern states. If you drive up though Vermont and NH or Maine or upstate NY the lakes are dotted with shanties when weather permits. Calamities abound there also...cars fall through the ice...shanties melt though the ice...kids fall through the ice. You don't hear about those incidents because they aren't "Lake Michigan" and it is only covered in the local news. I won't deny that people do "questionable" activities but that is part of the human spirit. That is what gives us the courage to brave solo sails in small boats around the world...try and break the land/speed records on motorcycles and jet cars. The human spirit allows someone like Felix Baumgartner to freefall from the edge of space at over 800 MPH, thus becoming the fastest human alive. Activities like these are not for everyone, but for those who do...I say bully for them. Yes Lake Michigan was a calamity, but without the daring and foolhardy souls ... we would still be living in caves and fear the lightening. Pushing the limits is in our DNA...it may not always seem like the "proper" thing to do, but rest assured we WILL push the limits...either in the name of FUN, in the name of SCIENCE, or even CURIOSITY...that is what we DO. If we take that away we have nothing left but survival without Vision or Pleasure...a life without Goals. We always have to push the limits or our objectives become routine...meaningless. Namaste

@phoenixone1

You are lucky to be alive. So am I. At age 22, I freehand climbed a waterfall. Coastal mountains, Oregon. It looked easy to me. "Pull over!" I cried when I spotted the waterfall.

"How are you going to get down, smartass?" two male companions yelled when I reached the top. I was wearing hiking boots, a T-shirt and shorts. "Watch me!" I called. Crouching down and steering by grabbing branches, I slid on my boots on wet crisscrossed logs. Landed on my feet on the ground, soaking wet and laughing. They shook their heads.

At age 15, I sneaked outside at midnight and skated alone on thin ice. It had rained the day before turning the ice to glass. Skating in the glittering path of the full moon, I felt exhilarated by speed, danger and exquisite beauty.

“Craack!” the ice shrieked beneath my feet. Long cracks fanned across the ice.

Nobody knew where I was. “I’m lightweight,” I thought and skated faster.

It occurred to me that if I fell in, my dead body would wash up in the Spring, maybe never. Quickly I skated to the shore and made my way around the lake to home.

Never told a soul until age 35. “Don’t tell me that NOW!” my mother gasped, horrified.

After having a baby at 36, I severely downshifted reckless behavior.

@LiterateHiker I did the midnight skating thing also...ice was "OK" ...just don't try any jumps...it was on a small water hazard at the local Golf Course...Local Sherriff saw me and gave chase...I grabbed my boots and ran in my skates up and over the hill and lost him in the local housing area...hid inside someone's back hall(no clue as to who lived there 😳) to warm up and put on my boots. Played Tom Sawyer in a metal cement mixing trough on a flooded stream in 5th Grade...in January or February...made it about a mile downstream to the back of our property line ... Then I tried to get out of the trough onto the embankment...didnt quite work like I had envisioned it in my head...me...my school books and my pride ...in the ice water up to my NECK...crawled out and headed up to the house...Ma had of course locked the door so she would KNOW when I arrived home...finally...late as usual...and of course soaking wet and muddy...smfh...I was a handful...she took one look at me and just shook her head and said..."go take a hot shower and get ready for dinner...I will talk to you about this later"...I was grounded for another MONTH...story of my LIFE😂. I am lucky I am still alive.

@phoenixone1

Now on hikes if it's too steep, I ascend on hands and feet and descend on the seat of my pants.

Although my pride takes a beating, I'd rather be safe.

With osteoporosis, I don't want to fall and break bones.

@LiterateHiker Cascades are extremely steep...I climbed one of the small peaks behind the Truckstop on 90 outside Seattle...you have to be VERY careful on the descent. Beautiful area though...

4

Too bad they don't have to pay for the rescue out of their own pockets. There should be fines for stupidity.

@HippieChick58

I agree.

I feel the same way about idiots who climb mountains unprepared. No food, water or jacket. They should pay for their rescue.

2

Back when I lived in north central Montana, during the winter after it had been below 20 degrees zero, I wanted to see if I could stand on a block of ice in the Milk River and float for a while. The river was no more than about three feet deep as I could see the bottom through the water around the iceberg. I wanted the iceberg to move so I jumped on it to loosen it and slipped and fell into the river. Three feet deep and not solid just because it was moving I got out of the water and tried to walk home. I have three friends with me and they could not stop laughing, the cold did not really bother me, it was the fact that the hair on my legs stuck out straight and froze into the fabric of my jeans. It hurt to get the jeans off when I got home. When the ice in the jeans melted the jeans were dry. I have not tried this again. May not be to smart, but I am not that stupid.

@dalefvictor

How old were you when you tried this stunt?

@LiterateHiker About thirteen, I did not feel that I was in danger as I thought I could jump off the berg, I figured I would get wet and I was closer than half a mile from home with no wind blowing. Even if I would have fallen in and gotten completely wet, I could have taken off my clothes and since there was no wind and the sun was out I would have made it home. Also if things got really bad there was a hospital where my mother worked that I had to walk by to get home. I want not totally an idiot there was some thought given to my safety.

@LiterateHiker Not the most stupid thing I have ever done.

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