The winter beachscape contains icy beauty and hidden hazards.
A trip to the beach may not be the first thing that comes to mind in February, but even at this time of year the world’s longest freshwater beach is a destination for winter-weary walkers seeking open space to explore.
Retreating water levels on the upper Great Lakes have translated into a much wider beach than years past, uncovering many kilometers of uninterrupted sandy shoreline to stroll. Winter storms have also created large ice formations in the shallows. Shaped like frozen volcanos, the piles of ice add points of interest to the exquisite landscape. However tempting, walking out onto the ice can be a recipe for disaster. The nearshore ice is an amalgamation of smaller ice fragments that can be porous and unstable. The slippery surface can also result in falls off the edge into the water with no easy way out, which can lead to hypothermia that can become lethal very quickly.
