A drive on water!!

...an account of a casual drive on the lake... with a twist

The icy cold winds brushed against my face, trying to rip out the skin. They were getting partial success in the process, drying up my skin, leaving it susceptible to easy tear. But, the greater damage by the cold (-10 degree centigrade) winds was the numbing of the senses of my facial muscles, which were quickly dying out like the last few desperate wriggles of a fish out of water. I had to do this fast, else would need a lot of time to recover later, from the ruthless torture of the dangerously cold breeze.
I held my camera steady, and composed the picture of the whiteness of the frozen North Wood Lake spreading out as a backdrop to the dark brown, wooden board leading to it.
The state of Minnesota in the US is known as the 'Land of ten thousand lakes'. Though I am not sure about the exact count of the lakes in the state, I did find a lot of lakes there. The sizes of these lakes vary from just as big as a swimming pool, to the as big as that equivalent to an entire state. Some lakes were as big or bigger than a state!!!
We were at the 'Lake of the Woods' town, in the northern most part of Minnesota, on the border of US. It was a seven hours drive from Minneapolis, the place of my stay in the US.

Just then, I noticed a car entering the frame of the picture that I was about to click. IT WAS OUR CAR!!!
A Ford Taurus, which had been driven onto the frozen lake by my roommate.
Was he CRAZY???
The lake was frozen all right. But, could it take the weight of the car? How could one know what would be the thickness of the ice of the lake? How much thickness was required to support the weight of the car?
"Come fast, ma'an. Let's go for a small drive on the lake," he screamed.
I was shocked. Drive on the lake??!!! What sort of madness was this?
Any weak crack in the ice could lead to a suicidal plunge into the evil cold waters of the lake. There was no escape if something went wrong. Our fate would be sealed.
The lakeshore was absolutely deserted, but for a distant restaurant. The whiteness of the snow on the lake spread out, concealing any weakness that may be in the ice. I had recently watched the Titanic on the TV, and did not want this Taurus to become our Titanic. And there wasn't even a good-looking Ms Winslet to die for.

Just then, my eyes fell on a Ford 150, a truck making its way towards the lakeshore from the center of the lake. As my eyes rapidly searched, they found many other huge vehicles far away in the lake.
Whew!!! So, that lake was safe after all.

I clicked the picture, and then made a dash to the car. As I jumped into the car, and pulled the door shut, the sudden change in the temperatures gave a temporary relief to my facial skin, but the sensation of burning was felt as blood began to gush into the muscles. It was like painting one's face with headache balm all over.



As my friend slowly accelerated, the car began to trudge ahead, first slowly, and then a little fast with shackled efforts, as though something was holding it back. This was due to the large deposits of fresh snow over the icy surface of the lake. That made the car move like the vehicles in desert.
If not careful, one could get stuck in snow.

I realized that we were repeating mythology (not history :D ). Remember all those fables about ancient Indian sages able to walk over water??? Well, we had gone a step further, and were driving over water.

Just then we came across a small blue board nailed to the ice on the surface of the lake actually. 'Stay on the trail' the board warned.

The trail consisted of makeshift way markers of thin pieces of wood, arranged in a row, leading farther out towards the horizon where the whiteness of the lake and the depressive blue of the sky met. For the next five minutes, we drove in silence, admiring the sheer expanse of the large, plain landscape of the frozen lake, covered with snow. The white snow spread out luxuriously, till our eyes could see. At the other end, we could make out that the trail was leading into a cluster of pine trees (the only trees which are green even in winter) at a great distance. I could make out that quite a few vehicles had passes by the trail recently, due to the rough marks of the tracks. But, the marks appeared to be a little different than the expected tire tracks.
A glimpse towards my right side, had me looking towards the center of the lake, which only had whiteness till the horizon. A few dark dots were visible, which I guessed to be some trucks that had ventured towards thinner ice, for ice fishing.
It appeared as a scene out of Antarctica.

Suddenly, my friend at the driving wheel started struggling to hold the vehicle in control. The next moment we came to an abrupt halt.

Blood started to drain from my face as I had realized what had happened. "I think we are stuck, ma'an," my friend gave out a nervous laughter. The car was stuck in the snow, over the frozen lake.
But we had stayed on the trail!!!

As he tried to accelerate the vehicle, we could feel the front wheels whirl around. But the car did not budge. He put it in reverse gear, and accelerated. The powerful car struggled like a horse in captivity. But did not budge, even an inch. We got out to inspect the scene. I noticed that the wheel had burrowed into the snow, and had reached the depth where it was in contact with smooth ice. Any amount of acceleration would only make the wheels to slide on the smooth, wet ice.
I was never in such a situation before, and was nervous. I knew we had to run for help, but would the car hold long enough on the ice till we returned?

Why the hell did we ever come out onto the lake?!!
We should have taken the picture of the lake, and the sky, and should have returned.
Why did we get into all these unpleasant adventures??!!!
Should we just leave the car and run ?

How did things go wrong?
We had stayed on the trail!!!

Alright. Now was not the time for ifs, buts, and whys. We had a challenge, not a problem.
We had to overcome the challenge.

We could see that the snow buildup at the front and rear of the front tires was preventing the car from moving back. More acceleration would lead to more burrowing. Could we clear out some snow from the rear of the wheels, and try to accelerate it in backward direction?
We had nothing to shovel out the snow. Hurriedly, we searched for tools at the trunk of the car. We could only find a snowbrush. This brush is used to clear the snow deposited on the cars, when parked outdoors. The brush had a bent shovel like attachment to its handle, to remove any ice formations on the windshield and the headlights while on long drives. This attachment appeared strong enough.

I used it to pull out some snow from the rear of the front tires. The attachment was in no way a replacement of a shovel. It was just scraping off some snow here and there. The negative temperature of the surroundings, the warming up of the body due to this hard labor were inducing some strange sensations of chill and warmth. Though I had my thick coat, the chill was getting to me. The effort seemed endless.
We ditched that idea.
Next, I tried lifting the car at the front, as my friend tried to accelerate backwards. The car was too heavy. It was in no way comparable to the frail Maruti 800, which I had lifted similarly, some years back, in India. This car was a heavy mammoth.

It was half past four in the evening. During the winters, the days are very short in the US. Minnesota had sunsets at half past four in winters.
I decided to run to the shores for help, as it would get very dark, very soon.

As I walked back towards the shore, the cold winds were cutting against my face, the only exposed part of the body, as even the hands were gloved. I pulled out the muffler from my pocket, and held it against my face, leaving only the eyes. For the next five minutes, it was a very difficult walk towards the lakeshore, with an occasional cracking sound below. The cracking sound was more towards the shores, as the grass from narrow lakebed would have induced weaknesses in the ice.
Every step was making me nervous. I was not walking back on the trail, as the trail took a longer route to the shore. Hence, the route I was taking to the shore was untested yet.
Also, the amount of snow over the ice was decreasing towards the shore. This made the ice more slippery. I had to watch my every step, as a fall on the ice may be nasty. It would be more hurting than falling on the muddy ground. But, that was the least of my worries. I was more concerned about falling on thin ice, which might break the winter diet of any sharks below the layer of snow....heh heh.
Just kidding.
There are no sharks in these lakes, but the water was cold enough to paralyze the body within minutes.

I turned back for a glance at what my friend was doing. Now, it was getting very dark, and I could hardly see the car. But, he had switched on the 'hazard lights'. This was an intelligent move. Maybe some passing truck might notice, and would tug the car out of the pit.
I turned and moved towards the small restaurant on the lakeshore. As I moved carefully, avoiding the slippery ice formations on the roads of the lakeshore, I noticed that almost all the vehicles had gone now. My hopes of getting help were disappearing by the minute.

Now, I began cursing myself. I should have brought out my digital camera, and some other stuff lying in the rear of the car. If the car went down, all our other stuff would go down with it.

As I entered the restaurant on the lakeshore, I came up to the some of the old waitresses, relaxing with drinks, just before closing. I stated my case to them.
"So you mean, you are stuck on the lake???" the waitresses seemed shocked beyond belief.
I stated that we had just followed the trail.
"Trail? What trail? That is no trail for a car. It is the trail for the snowmobiles," uttered the old, blond waitress. The snowmobiles are vehicles designed to be rode over the snow.
So, the strikingly rough tracks on the trail were from snowmobiles!!!
I felt like hiding under the table around which they were sitting.
I asked her if she knew of contact numbers of any towing vehicles. "I doubt if the ice can hold the weight of the towing vehicles, but I will try to get you numbers anyway," said one of the waitresses, as she took me over to the telephone directory. She showed me to some phone numbers. All the three numbers failed to respond.

"Hmm," she said, "I have a shovel in my car trunk. It is a little broken, but might help you shovel out some snow," she said as she led me out to her car, and got me an aluminum shovel.
Though I was not sure about whether shoveling could help us get the car out, I thought that it was better than nothing. I was praying that some of the trucks at the center of the lake would come driving down towards the shore, and help us pull the car out of the pit. I did not know if the shovel could be of any help at all.

I thanked her, and started on my trudge back to the lake, scaling my path carefully, a little nervous due to the occasional cracking sounds from beneath, with the shovel on my shoulders. When I reached the car, there was the Ford truck moving away from the car. I was wondering if he would help us out. I noticed that he turned back towards the car and came upto us.
My friend told me later that they had tried to tow the car already, by the truck, but the car had failed to move. He was returning as he had not been able to help, but now seeing me with a shovel, he guessed that it might work this time.
I tried to shovel out the snow from the front and rear of the front tires. Just then, a huge man on a snowmobile stopped over. He appeared to be a pin up man for the WWE fans. The unbelievably huge shoulders, the singular design of his beard gave away that he would have been a Harley Davidson biker in summer.
He took the shovel from me and hit out at the snow with great vigor. I was left marveling about the man's strength, despite appearing well over his early forties.
After shoveling out the snow, the trucker tied a rope to the cars' rear, accelerating his truck.
The car wriggled like a scared snake, when the truck pulled it out of the pit, and then came to a halt.
It was a sight of great relief for me, who had already been planning to book lodge rooms at this place.

The huge man who had helped me shovel, suggested that only my friend be in the car, as he drove it to the lake shore, to have the minimum weight in the car. He offered me a ride to the lakeshore on his sleek snowmobile.
"That was one big adventure for you guys," the biker blurted out on the top of the roar of the snowmobile engines. "Yeah," I said, " Hope we don't do it again."
"You need to get a truck ma'an," the biker said, "Give the car to your girl."
"Hahaha," I let out a guffaw, "You are right." What did he know?!! I had seen more women on the truck, than cars, in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

In the restaurant, all the old waitresses were very happy, and congratulated us for the effort. They also warned me to be careful the next time when we are driving, on frozen water.
Thanking the trucker, and the snowmobiler for their help, and the waitress for her shovel, we started our long drive back home into the darkness.