The group is the vanguard of more than 400, mostly women, making their way on a nine-mile, mid-winter journey, some call it a pilgrimage, starting near Stockbridge on the east shore and continuing across the largest freshwater lake in the United States.

Why?

"It was on my bucket list. I was on a mission. Walking across Lake Winnebago was something I had to do in my life," said Gail Mayer, 58, of Hilbert of her 2010 walk.

What started out as an admittedly crazy walk across the lake in 2003 by a Neenah woman and a friend to retrieve a purse left at a Stockbridge restaurant has blossomed into a fast-growing tradition that could attract more than 1,000 participants in 2012.

"Walking Winnebago for Whiskers," which could raise as much as $10,000 for the Animal Welfare League shelter near Neenah, takes place on Feb. 4, as usual the Saturday before the opener of the sturgeon spearing season on Lake Winnebago.

"My ultimate goal is to have a 'Hands Across Winnebago' event with people holding hands in a solid line from the west shore to the east shore," said Stacy Frakes, a Neenah jeweler and founder of the event. Frakes lives on the west shore of the lake near Paynes Point and can see the walk's starting point on the east shore Faro Spring Road from her living room windows.

"We figure we would need about 6,280 people," Frakes, the first female president of the Payne's Point Hook and Spear Fishing Club, said as she envisioned a long line of people stretching from shore to shore. "Do I think we could get more than 6,000 people? Absolutely! I think the whole community would like to be part of it. It would be awesome."

Frakes came up with the idea of walking across the lake nine years ago. "It started out as a couple of crazy women walking across the lake because I forget my purse one night. Three couples from Neenah decided to go across the lake in our trucks to have dinner at the Gobbler's Knob in Stockbridge. When we got home I realized I forgot my purse," Frakes said. "The next morning I called one of the women we went with and told her 'You know. I think we should go back, but let's walk.' It was a great day. The temperature was in the 30s. There was no wind. So we threw a couple of beers in our pockets and started walking."

A lot of lake travelers, mostly sturgeon hunters preparing for the upcoming season, stopped to talk to the two women.

"They wondered what we were doing out there and where our vehicles were," Frakes said.

The two women followed ice roads plowed out about six miles by the Payne's Point fishing club. They then encountered a truck from the Brickyard Fishing Club near Stockbridge, plowing roads from the east side near Calumet County Park.

"They plowed past us slowly then suddenly backed up and asked us 'where is your vehicle? We said 'we're walking across the lake to get a Bloody Mary to drink.' They drove off, but backed up again and said 'Don't they have those (Bloody Marys) on the other side of the lake?'" Frakes said.

The women had such a good time on their journey decided the walk should be an annual event and only for women.

Participation grew slowly with walkers numbering 42 in 2009 before jumping to 84 in 2010.

News accounts of the walk and some advertising helped boost the number of walkers to about 450 in 2011, when Frakes decided the event needed a purpose.

"I was working with the animal shelter at the time so decided we should raise money for them," Frakes said.

Nancy Rabideau, treasurer at the shelter, joined the walk in 2011.

"I do have a fear of water, so I am very cautious when I go out there," Rabideau said. "My feet got sore, but I knew it was for a good cause. I have a passion for animals and giving them a second chance."

Rabideau said money raised by the event is sorely needed by the shelter, which took in 500 unwanted and abused animals in 2011.

"It costs us about $17,000 a month to operate the shelter," Rabideau said. "We have enough in certificates of deposit and endowments to last us about 18 months. We are a non-profit. If we ran out of money, the shelter would have to close."

Rabideau said warm weather in 2011 made a portion of the walk, especially near bridges that span areas of open water, a bit hair raising.

"Toward the end it got a little slushy, which made me nervous," Rabideau said. "When we crossed the bridges over the ice the water was real clear and you could see down into it. It gave me a weird feeling in my stomach."

Frakes said the hand-made steel bridges, designed to carry vehicles over pressure cracks, are 50 to 72 feet long and resemble ladders with rungs every foot or so.
"Those cracks are working  (spreading, closing and moving) cracks and you have open water underneath year," Frakes said.

Water along much of the route is 22 feet deep, Frakes said.

"Crossing on the bridges can be quite tense for some people. You are walking in boots over the water on a metal ladder. Some people bring their dogs so you are walking over open water on metal bars with boots and trying to keep your dog from falling between the rungs," Frakes said.

"There is a lot of hand holding at that point," said Jordan Frakes, Stacy's 22-year-old daughter who helps organize the walk.

Jordan Frakes recalled the 2009 walk when the 42 participants faced heavy snow and wind producing white-out conditions.

"It was like walking in a snow globe," she said.

Stacy Frakes said the group used global position technology (GPS) devices to stay on track.

"That's an odd feeling (being in a whiteout condition). You turn around 360 degrees and everything looks the same," Stacy Frakes said. "It felt like being in a white sandstorm or something. You had no idea where you were going. A few of the ladies were close to panic attacks, but we assured them we were following GPS coordinates and had faith in those coordinates."

Asking walkers to have faith is a regular task for Frakes, especially when it seems like the ice is ready to split open and swallow the group.

"It can sound like thunder. To me it sounds like people moaning in pain or like real thunderbolts," Frakes said of sounds made when the two-foot-thick sheet of ice covering Lake Winnebago cracks under the
immense pressure of its own weight.

"When the lake cracks I've always been told that's a good thing," Jordan Frakes said.

But try to tell that to a first-time lake walker who's never heard the sound before.

"Last year it happened a couple times and I could hear people start to scream a little bit. They thought they were going in," Stacy Frakes said.

The isolation of being in the middle of the frozen lake hit home for Frakes several years ago when sturgeon hunters, usually abundant on Lake Winnebago, all but abandoned their regular spearing grounds on Winnebago and flocked to Lake Poygan for the last season of open spearing before a
lottery system kicked in.

"There was no one on Lake Winnebago. That was weird," Frakes said. "It was eerie because once you get in the middle of the lake, if something happened there was no traffic to take you back to shore. And we didn't have cell phones back then. It was kind of scary. You feel very helpless when you are out there by yourself."

Other than the hundreds of ice anglers, snowmobilers, sturgeon hunters scouting spearing locations and the occasional low-flying airplane there's not too much to break up the flat landscape of the frozen lake,
Frakes said.

"To me it is very comforting being on the ice. Being on the water, whether it is liquid or frozen, has always been very peaceful to me. When it is frozen you can just walk and think," she said.

That doesn't mean you can't have fun on the frozen slab. The 2010 walk brought a special surprise for Lauren Roloff of Hortonville – a marriage proposal.

As the walk, which  that year started at Paynes Point and ended at Bobber's, neared the end Luke Moran of Menasha appeared with a group of men who had circled the lake to pick up their wives and girlfriends.

Moran was waiting on the ice with a big sign asking Lauren to marry him. "Lauren. You walked across the frozen lake to meet me; now will you walk down the aisle and marry me?" the sign read.

Moran also carried a special chunk of ice, the kind of ice women really appreciate – a diamond engagement ring.

"It was a really cold day, but we all thought the idea was cool," said Mary Moran, Luke's mother.

Lauren said yes, the couple was married Oct. 22, 2011 and left Jan. 18 for a honeymoon trip to Mexico.

"But they'll be back by Feb. 4. They're both signed up and ready to be in this year's walk across the lake," Mary Moran said.

Luke Moran won't be the only man walking in the event originally organized for women (dogs always allowed) as shades of sex discrimination hit the ice.
"Last year some guy asked if we could keep it a little more gender neutral because men wanted to walk too," Frakes said.

Of course, making the event an all-out coed exercise might help Frakes reach her goal of 6,000-plus participants to hold hands across the lake.

"Last year we did ask the walkers to each bring a couple of virgin ice walkers with them," Frakes said.

One man who has been welcome on the walk for the past few years is Frakes' neighbor, Karl Engling.

Engling pulls his sturgeon spearing shanty several miles out onto the lake and turns it into his own version of a Porta Potty.

"I turn the heat on in the shanty, put some five gallon buckets in it for the ladies with some toilet paper and have the radio playing," he said.

Even more appreciated is Engling's portable party bar at mid lake. He started out several years ago making Margaritas.

"I would take a portable generator and some blenders out there and make margaritas," he said.

Growth in numbers and problems with the drinks freezing forced Engling to look for an alternative.

"The last couple years I made Apple Pie," Engling said of a concoction of apple cider, cinnamon sticks and liquor. "I make it and heat it up at home, then take it onto the ice in coolers which keeps it warm."

Engling named his operation "Apple Pieville."

Frakes said she expects this year's walk to happen despite the warmer-than-normal winter.
"The joke this year is to bring a boat, inner tube or life jacket if you want to participate," Frakes said. "People tell us we are crazy and the lake is never safe. I am very comfortable with the ice, although you
have to have great respect for it."

Frakes said the walk is far enough from the Fox River to avoid river currents from undermining the ice.

"If there was ever any inkling the ice was bad I wouldn't lead anyone out there. Right now we just want ice cold weather until the day of the walk," Frakes said a day before Mother Nature granted her wish and delivered the season's first blast of sub-zero arctic air on Jan.19.

When Frakes is not busy working in the jewelry business, or preparing her hot pink sturgeon shanty for the upcoming season, she helps daughter Jordan organize this year's walk.

"What prompts people to walk across the lake in the middle of winter? They know its nine miles and conditions could be horrible," Frakes said. "But they just do it."

The walk begins at Bobbers Bar at Faro Springs between Stockbridge and Sherwood, goes a mile down a steep hill to the lake and continues 71/2 miles on the ice to the west shore a half-mile from the finish line at Mikee's Payne's Point Bar.

The cost to participate is $20, with $10 going toward souvenirs of the walk and $10 for the animal shelter. Buses will transport walkers from the Vinland Still &Grill beginning at 10 a.m. For more information and entry forms go to walkthelake.weebly.com

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