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Photo appears to show Michigan man walking on water, literally

BOYNE CITY, Mich. — A photo of a Michigan man looks startlingly surreal, as if he’s walking on water, but in reality he’s standing on an ice-covered lake near Boyne City in the northern part of the state.

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It wasn’t a hoax, as some have suggested, according to Andre Poineau, who said he ventured out onto Lake Charlevoix in mid-January when the ice was more than 2 inches thick and so clear, you could see the sandy ripples on the lake bottom.

No, this is not a Photoshop manipulation. And it's not Biblical water-walking skills. 
It's a photograph of Andre...

Posted by Detroit Free Press on Monday, January 23, 2017

Such extremely clear ice occurs under certain conditions.

“I’ve seen it several times before. The water in Lake Charlevoix is incredibly clear to begin with, partly because of zebra mussels,” Poineau told MLive.com.

“When it freezes without agitation, there are hardly any oxygen bubbles in the ice. “

“It happens on rare occasions,” he added.

Poineau, 63, says he was a little apprehensive about stepping out on the ice that day and had a shovel with him to test its strength. It passed the test.

Photographer Martha Sulfridge took the stunning shot on Jan. 15 and the rest, as they say, is history. The picture has gone viral and has been shared on Facebook more than 60,000 times.