Yukon campers snowmobile across melting lake surface

It's a beautiful Canadian image,with an element of the surreal. A canoe, smoothly gliding across a scenic and tranquilYukon lake andtowed by a snowmobile.

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Matthew Holmes of Whitehorse was camped out on Lake Laberge earlier this week, with a group of private school students from Seattle, Washington. They had traveled by snowmobile across the ice-covered laketo set up a remote campsite.

They ended up beating a hasty retreat aftersome warm spring weatherchanged the scene.

"On Monday, there was about 12 inches of snow on the lake, and by Tuesday that had turned into six to eightinches of water. Not overflow, but direct water on top of the lake," Holmes said.

Holmes and the other guides packed up their gear and towed it back to a nearby lodge, using snowmobiles, ATVs, and canoes. The students made their way back along shore, Holmes said. Kirk Buckle shot video of the group making their way across the lake on snowmobile, capturing a scene that seems as if the riders are skimming across open water.

"We still knew that there was about twofeet of ice below us at that point," said Holmes,"but we didn't really know how quickly it would be melting out with the intense sun and the water on top.We didn't know the melt rate, so we opted to play it safe.

"We had to make pretty quick decisions."