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FeedOn Ice
Whether your need for speed is satisfied by the natural power of the wind or can only be fulfilled with the roar of an engine, Georgetown Lake is the place for you.
With ski season upon us, so too is the flood of traffic along I-70. During the winter, roughly a million vehicles make the round trip through the Eisenhower Tunnel each month, according to CDOT. That's a lot of traffic, and unless you wake up early or sleep late, chances are you spend your share of time sitting in creeping traffic with those 999,999 other drivers.
Inevitably, you'll pass Georgetown along the way. Typically, it's ice cold and windswept. But if you look to the south at the frozen Georgetown Lake, you just might spy one of Colorado's most unique wintertime activities: ice sailing or iceboating. The concept is simple: harness the power of the wind to cruise across frozen lakes, using custom-built rigs with a small cockpit for the pilot, a trio of blades that contact the ice and a sail that catches the wind.
"It's an obscure sport. When I tell people, I get the wrinkled eyebrow look," says Rick Hypes, a local ice boater. "It's one of those sports that not everybody hears about, but they drive up I-70 and see us, and they're curious. They ask me, "˜Are you having fun?' Of course I am!"
Hypes is a 50-year-old X-ray technician from Greeley who started ice sailing seriously about 10 years ago, after toying with the sport for years before that. His rig is custom in the truest sense of the word. He built it himself using scrap metal salvaged from a sprinkler system and used windsurfing sails and masts. The whole thing only cost about $300 or so. "It's the ultimate recycling project," he says.
In an average year, Hypes and his friends will start ice sailing around Thanksgiving and continue into March. As long as there's at least four inches of ice, enough wind and a smooth surface, they're good. But those elements can be harder to come by than you might think. "It can be frustrating. We need ice with no snow on it. So we want cold weather and no snow, or if it does snow, we want the wind to blow the snow off the ice before it freezes." That mentality runs counter to the hordes of skiers, who have been praying for lots of snow and no wind.
Still, Hypes finds plenty of places to sail: Cherry Creek, Chatfield and Aurora reservoirs and lakes in Longmont and Loveland. But best of all is Georgetown Lake. On a good day, you might catch six sailors out on the lake (Hypes estimates the entire statewide ice sailing community to number only about 30, and as close as they get to a formal organization is Hypes' Website, windisfun.com).
"It's an absolute thrill ride," Hypes says. "You accelerate incredibly fast, and your butt is inches off the ground with ice chips flying off the blades. It magnifies the feeling of speed." Sounds appealing.
Wind power won't appeal to everyone, however. If you're looking for a bit more horsepower, then consider ice racing. Conveniently, ground zero for ice racing also happens to be Georgetown Lake, and Our Gang Four Wheelers (ourgangiceracing.com) is the resident club.
Our Gang traces its history back to 1965, when folks informally began racing on a frozen lake near Central City. An organized group known as the Rat Patrol soon followed, and the races moved to other locations, including the lake at St. Mary's Glacier near Idaho Springs. Our Gang officially formed in 1977, holding races at Twin Lakes, and in 1980, the races shifted to Georgetown, where they've been, more or less, ever since.
Racers need 12 inches of ice to hold an event and 18 inches of ice to bring support vehicles out onto the lake. Georgetown fortuitously averages 18 to 22 inches of ice through the heart of the season.
How exactly does ice racing work? There's the frozen lake, of course, and a race track laid out with orange cones. But then it gets interesting. Our Gang organizes races across three divisions. The Competition Division features experienced drivers in highly customized rigs. The Pro Street Division features street-legal vehicles that have usually been modified for ice racing and drivers sporting a range of experience levels. Lastly, the Street Stock Division features novice drivers on street-legal vehicles that haven't been modified.
To make it even more interesting, each division has three classes, depending on the type of tires you use: bare rubber, studded tires or cheaters (customized tires with hundreds of two-inch-long bolts protruding out of the treads that offer insane traction and resemble something akin to a medieval torture device).
Our Gang has around 30 members, but up to 150 people "” their ages spanning the teen years straight through seniors "” compete in the races each season. Membership in the club isn't mandatory to race. If you're Joe Public off the street looking to try your hand at racing, all you need are a valid driver's license, a 4WD or AWD vehicle, and $20 to pay the race entry fee. Then have at it. In the Street Stock Bare Rubber class, competitors race their vehicles in the condition they were driven to Georgetown, and while Jeeps make their share of appearances, so do AWD Audis and other cars.
Racers looking to get competitive might take a lesson from Lisa Bashline, a 25-year-old ice racer from Westminster. She's a part-time student and works part-time at a granite and tile dealer. She's also Our Gang's Webmaster and, you might say, has ice racing in her blood. "My mother and father started ice racing before Our Gang was even formed, so I grew up in it," she says. "When I turned 15, I got my learner's permit and immediately started racing." A few years later, Bashline moved up to the Competition Division, where she's been a force to be reckoned with. Last year, she was the division's point champion.
For the motorheads out there, Bashline races a heavily customized Jeep. The body is a 1952 M38, the frame a 1975 CJ5, and the engine a 434-cubic-inch Chevy small block. Add to that a roll cage and five-point harness. The Jeep was built specifically for ice racing in 1977, when it raced under the name "Adrenaline." The Bashlines bought it in 1986 and started racing it one season later under the name "Half Fast."
So what's the hardest part of ice racing? "You have to balance speed and control," Bashline says. "It's easy to let the gas pedal get away from you. You go too fast, lose control and miss a corner."
The best part of ice racing may be simply that it's a ton of fun and well worth coughing up the $20 entry fee and giving it a go. And at the very least, "it teaches you good Winter driving skills," says Bashline, not to mention bragging rights. The next time you and your carpool full of skiers are heading up to the mountains, you can point to the strange activity taking place on Georgetown Lake and say, "Yeah. I've been there and done that."
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