02/18/2026
Wow 😮 this is pretty incredible.
Most cyclists worry about black ice on the road.
Eric McKinney rode his bike across miles of it....Over water deep enough to swallow a skyscraper.
The Painesville father of three became the first recorded person to bike across the ice of all five Great Lakes this winter. Not in separate years. Not with a support team. Just one man, one modified Trek 930 mountain bike, and a milk crate full of survival gear that might be the only thing standing between adventure and obituary.
The idea started innocently enough. McKinney, an Army veteran with 11 years of service, rode out to Fairport Harbor Lighthouse in Mentor last year. He looked across the frozen expanse and saw something nobody else had apparently considered.
Uncharted territory. On a bicycle.
He went home and searched Google. No one had done it. Not on all five lakes. He started planning.
But riding a bicycle across a frozen Great Lake isn't like riding across a parking lot in January. It's a high-stakes gamble where the ice beneath you groans, shifts, and occasionally opens up to pull people under. Just last February, the Coast Guard rescued four Clevelanders who fell through Lake Erie. They misjudged the ice.
McKinney knew he couldn't afford that mistake.
He spent months preparing. He studied NOAA ice charts to identify safe routes and avoid weak spots near shipping channels and warmer currents. He scoured ice fishing forums for real-time ground reports. He tested his setup on local ponds. He took cold plunges to acclimate his body.
Then he outfitted his Trek 930 with studded Schwalbe ice tires and rigged a milk crate to the back. Inside that crate: a space blanket, ice picks, signaling mirrors, Hot Hands, a flotation device, extra gloves, snacks, and water.
He wore a full dry suit and life jacket. He carried handlebar mittens. He packed tools for mechanical failures.
Because there was no blueprint. No one to call. No rescue plan that didn't involve him saving himself.
On January 3, McKinney drove to Bay City, Michigan, and rode four miles across Lake Huron to Shelter Island. The ice was clear and ten inches thick. It worked.
But the other lakes tested him harder.
On Lake Michigan in Green Bay, he navigated thin sheets with the current rolling underneath. The temperature hit -16°F with windchill. On Lake Superior, snow drifts and wind ridges slowed his progress. On Lake Ontario near Chaumont, New York, his bike chain snapped. He had to walk his bike back to shore across the ice.
His final ride came January 24 on Lake Erie. He launched from Port Clinton toward Put-in-Bay, four miles out. Almost immediately, he hit choppy shards of ice. Then smooth, clear sheets. He spotted a coyote hunting birds in the distance.
Then the ice started groaning under his weight.
McKinney turned back. He'd already completed the other four. He didn't need to push his luck.
Lake Erie, the shallowest of the Great Lakes, is the only one that freezes entirely. That makes it possible. Not safe. Just possible.
McKinney isn't sure what comes next. He's not chasing sponsorships or world records. He's just the Army vet cyclist from Painesville who did something no one else had done.
He turned the ordinary into an adventure.
And he lived to tell about it.
