CLEVELAND — In February 1978, the temperature had been below freezing for more than 30 days. So, Dave Voelker decided to walk across Lake Erie alone.
“It probably occurs to a lot of people during cold winters. The lake sometimes will freeze over,” said Voelker.
Voelker, 28 years old at the time, called ahead to the Coast Guard to ensure the lake would be frozen over from the shores of Catawba Island to the Canadian border.
“The Coast Guard naturally is concerned about safety but they didn’t try to talk me out of it. They just said, you know, take certain precautions and so on.”
For the 30-mile trek, Voelker would bring a backpack, a tent, a sleeping bag and his camera equipment to document. He also brought flotation devices, an ice ax and red flare should anything go wrong.
“I also brought a walkie talkie in case I needed to reach somebody (or) had an emergency. Turned out that was useless because I couldn’t reach anybody when I did try to use it.”
Voelker stopped halfway, surrounded by darkness, to pitch his tent and sleep.
“And this is in the days before GPS so I couldn’t be too precise about my position. But if you look at a map, you’ll see the international boundary between the United States and Canada, it goes right across the middle. So I just shoot for about halfway across.”
The next day, Voelker continued on. He said he felt like he was on a treadmill.
“But when there’s no visual cues of movement. That’s when you feel like well, my legs are moving but I don’t seem to be getting anywhere, because your only marker is something that’s so far away that it registers no change.”
And then there it was — the Canadian shores. Voelker was greeted by a family who’s dog alerted them to his presence.
“Hey, people don’t normally approach us from this direction. So that’s when they noticed me coming in and they, you know, we chatted they actually invited me and we had some pizza. They were very nice folks.”
He hitch-hiked his way back to Northeast Ohio. Now, 43 years later, Voelker said it was one of those “seize the moment” things.
“It’s that feeling of completeness and achievement that one feels when one sets out to any tasks that you know is difficult and that you put a lot of effort in planning, and so obviously a lot of satisfaction.”
Looking back, he said he doesnt know that he would do it again, but he’s sure glad he did it.
