Shortcut home from church

We drove across Medicine Lake on our way home from Church. My wife was none too pleased and Roger was iffy too. But I prevailed and we "launched" at Harty's Boat Ramp and drove N-NW from there to the boat launch of Clifford French Park.

Here's a map.

Driving on ice

Here are the details:

1. It is about minus 10 degrees and has been very cold for days.
   
2. Harty only opens up his boat ramp when he is comfortable that is is safe to drive on the lake.
   
3. I've been observing cars and trucks on the lake for some time so I was comfortable (Roger and Kathee were not so ... but that's another story)
   
4. There is a large rectangular area off the boat ramp that has been plowed down to ice.
   
5. Launching: I approached the ramp slowly because the front of my Impala has the SS ground effects and I did not want to scrape the front
   
6. The Art Shanty project is just to the left of Harty's boat ramp. I wanted to drive that way but there was no consensus in the car and I already had my sweet wife upset at me.
   
7. We began to drive on North - North/West on a boulevard of packed snow. There were clear "lanes" separated by a wide median of a berm of snow.
   
8. Along the way the road just stopped ... I had a hard time even finding tracks. The snow is perhaps 3" deep and windswept. I was driving 20 mph. Roger thought I should slow down but I was worried about getting stuck in snow so I continued.
   
9. We crossed a large seam in the ice: no snow in this area and the seam was rugged and perhaps 6" wide ... slightly raised.
   
10. We surveyed the North shore of Medicine Lake looking for the French Park boat ramp. I was West of where I needed to be and took a soft right to bring us to a due North direction
    
11. Boat ramp in sight. I slowed to about 5 mph and glided gently up the ramp. Nothing scraped.
    
12. Onto home. Roger found it thrilling (his first time doing this). Kathee was not angry at me but was glad to be back on land
    

Ice Thickness and Strength for Various Loading Conditions

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Pastor Jason Stamper was the preacher of the day. His message was from 1 Corinthians 12. Very good