So yeah, even if Lake Michigan ever kinda-sorta freezes over, don't try crossing it by foot or vehicle. Leave that kind of dangerous travel to the ice balls.
People Also Ask
It seems incredibly dangerous to walk across a frozen lake as big as Lake Michigan in those conditions. According to the interwebs the distance would be about 59 miles, which would take several days in the elements.
This can be dangerous as you might think you're walking on solid ground, when actually you're out over the water. Due to the layered nature of shelf ice, even if you're out over four feet of water, if you were to fall through a thin spot in the ice, you could find yourself trapped in an ice cavern.
Ice forms on the shoreline, a little more each day. The scenic drive is closed until spring, and the only way to access the best views of Lake Michigan is to cross country ski or snowshoe to the lookouts.
Cracks, breaks, holes, weak spots or abnormal surfaces are indicators the ice is not suitable to walk on. Other signs of danger are flowing water near or at the edges of the ice, and ice that appears to have thawed and refrozen.
As a general rule of thumb, ice is safe to walk on when there is 4 inches or more of clear ice. It is important to understand that different types of ice varying in their strength. Clear blue or black ice is the strongest.
Dreyer is the only person to swim the width of Lake Michigan between Wisconsin and Michigan, having swum from Two Rivers, Wisconsin, to Ludington, Michigan, in 1998. In the 2023 swim, he was attempting to beat his own record by swimming 25 miles further in the route from Milwaukee to Grand Haven.
While there have been past “sightings,” most have turned out to be pranks or misidentifications. The reality is that the largest of the Great Lakes (Lake Superior and Michigan) are extremely deep lakes that are too cold for sharks.
Freezing temperatures force the lake to develop an ice shelf. On windy days, waves are driven toward the shore. As these waves crash into the shoreline, they also hit the ice shelf. This pushes the water up through the air.
“When you fall in the water and it's freezing, the first thing you do is kind of take a big gasp of air, and that causes you to hyperventilate.Your heart rate goes up.” There's also the risk of hypothermia, which can set in after 15 to 30 minutes in freezing water, Coker says.