McHenry County Blog

Taking my 9-year old to school I noticed a plum of snow in front of Crystal Lake’s Main Beach.

I asked my son if he could see it.

“See what?” he asked.

“You must be sitting too low to see it,” I replied.

Intrigued, after I dropped him off, I parked at the Main Beach parking lot and went for a look.

The sign said "Ice Safe."

The "Not" was blocked.

Three machines were clearing off the snow.

There was the snow blower emitting its stream of white.

A snowplow about the right size to clean the sidewalk was there, too.

And, finally, a machine with a revolving brush.

There were trying to clean off the night’s snow and the snow that had blown from the over a mile of frozen expanse to the west onto the area where hockey is played after school and on weekends and where kids skate.

The three machine operators were methodical

It took a long time.

Another crew drove up in a pick-up truck.

They were assigned to pump water out from beneath the ice of Crystal Lake and spread it on top to make the surface smoother.

They unloaded the equipment first.

An auger.

A hose with a filter to be stuck down beneath the layer of frozen water through the hole that would be drilled by the auger.

A pump to pull the frigid water out of Crystal Lake.

Lengths of hose through which the water would be pumped to the frozen surface.

Pipe wrenches with which to tighten the connections between the hoses and the pump.

Lengths of hose.

And two buckets of water to prime the pump.

Boy, did the three young men have problems.

They couldn’t get the water to flow.

Two more buckets of hot water were carried from the Main Beach House to the back edge of the rink.

One young man got his work gloves wet and took them off to try to make the connection between the hose and the pump tighter. I was concerned that would result in frostbite.

It’s a wonder that they did not have rubberized, insulated gloves.

After the better part of an hour in what had to be the coldest job in Crystal Lake, they were told to take a break until the other three could finish clearing the snow off the rest of the skating area.

When they returned—much warmer, I imagine—they still could not get the cold water to run through the pump.

They straightened the hose.

They looked for kinks.

Still, no success.

Finally, one went for help.

A fourth man arrived.

No luck.

Finally, one of the snow removal machine operators drove over and joined the four.By the time the water started flowing, there were six offering gathered around the pump and hole in the ice.

Finally, the water started flowing.

I ran out of exposures and went to Sam’s Club to transfer my images to disks.

About an hour later I returned to take a picture of the finished product, but it didn’t look finished.

The lake surface was certainly not uniformly smooth when they began and it appeared they had left before the job could be completed.

Maybe it was because the nozzle wouldn’t work right.

Maybe they’ll be back with another on another cold morning.

Return to McHenry County Blog on Tuesday for "Wheelies on Ice."

Labels: Auger, Crystal Lake Park District, Hose, Ice, Main Beach, Pump, Snow Blower, Snow Plow