Trail near Lake Placid had a frozen creek crossing that almost got me

Went up to Lake Placid last month to ride some snowmobile trails I found on a map. There was this creek crossing marked on the trail map as a shallow ford, but when I got there it was solid ice. Looked thick enough from the bank, so I throttled across. About halfway over I heard this loud crack and the whole thing started flexing under my track. I gunned it and made it to the other side, but my heart was pounding. Turned around to look and saw water bubbling up through the crack I just crossed. Turns out the warm weather had been eating the ice from underneath for days. Nobody else on the trail that morning, so if I had gone through I would have been in serious trouble. Has anyone else hit a crossing that looked safe but wasn't?

2 comments

2 Comments

troy_palmer768d ago

And isn't that just how it goes with so many things lately. You look at a situation, it seems solid enough from the outside, but the real danger is hiding underneath where you can't see it. Reminds me of how people buy houses based on a fresh coat of paint and never think to check the foundation or the plumbing until it floods the kitchen. It's like that frozen creek, you trust the surface because you want to get where you're going, but you forget that warm weather and time have been eating away at the supports. Glad you made it out, but that's a lesson you don't forget.

joseph_murray87d agoTop Commenter

Pretty sure half the houses I've ever walked through were held together by that fresh coat of paint and good intentions. Just waiting for the kitchen flood to find out if you got lucky or not.