Gerry Gooderham is thankful to still be alive.
Travelling alone, his snowmobile hit thin ice and started to sink into the freezing water of Lake Temagami yesterday.
Gerry picks up the story.
"Don't listen to my advice about thin ice, I obviously do not heed my own words. This happened after one week of travel on this trail. Ice is down to 1" where I went through yesterday.
"Lake levels are rising and there is a lot of snow on thin ice. Lucky the ski caught on slush ice or we would have gone to the bottom. I broke 50' of ice before I jumped! Thanks to John Harding and Paul Forsyth for helping me.
"I was alone out there. Thank God I used my resources...went to the bush and found a log and tied the log onto the sled to keep it from sinking.
"Crawled on my stomach to the sled and tied on the log, haha, luck, pure luck it did not sink. I left the machine overnight and called two friends and they helped me this morning."
Gooderham is a veteran of Lake Temagami snowmobile travel having lived on the lake full time since 1973.
"It's been 30 years since I did this," he said.
