Ice ride on Cayuga Lake

It's been real cold the last few weeks, and Cayuga Lake has frozen over going out more than a mile.  Driving along the lake a couple of days ago I saw ice skaters way out on the lake. The ice looked very smooth.

So today I decided to go out and bike on the lake.

I took my hybrid, which has 700x40c  (2.1 inch) Kenda Klondike tires, knobby with metal studs (see closeup photo).  I rode over to Stewart Park, walked my bike through some deeper snow and over the first 20 yards or so of the lake, which was very bumpy with ice shards, and then hopped back on my bike and took off.

It was a blast riding on the lake.  The ice was very smooth, covered with thin layers of snow, a bit thicker (an inch or two) in some places. The wind was pretty minimal (which is unusual), and it was sunny.

The lake is about a mile and a quarter across, and it was frozen going out at least a mile.  I rode back and forth across the lake, and I rode out along the shore pretty far, though nowhere near the edge.  My wife had driven over and was cross country skiiing on the lake, so we met up a few times as we went back and forth across the lake.  

On the smooth parts of the ice, I got up to 17mph, though I felt comfortable at 14 and lower.  

Going straight it felt fine, though I took it real easy turning, doing so very gradually.  

It was just great being able to go so far with no climbing at all. A truly flat ride!  Also, no traffic, no salt, there weren't many people at all out on the lake.  There were some people ice fishing.  I went over to ask how thick the ice was.  Turns out it's only 4 to 7 inches thick, but that is apparently plenty thick for people.

I ended up doing about 10 miles on the lake. It was the quickest and easiest winter 10 miles I've ever done, didn't seem that far and was an absolute pleasure. Looks like it won't get anywhere near 32 degrees for the next couple of weeks, so I'll definitely be going back out onto the lake sometime soon!