Hypothermic man, 25, found disorientated in middle of vast frozen lake and tells rescuers he had been walking for three days and was ‘trying to get from Detroit to Toronto’

A U.S. Coast Guard ship was cutting ice on frozen-over Lake St Clair Thursday morning when they came across a bizarre sight: a young man walking out on the ice alone in sub-freezing temperatures.

When crew members brought the curious 25-year-old man on board, he said he was trying to walk from Detroit to Toronto.

Detroit lies on the southwestern shore of Lake St Clair, and the unidentified ice-walker was found just half a mile from Seaway Island on the opposite shore. From there it’s a 201-mile journey on land to reach the Canadian capital.

U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Second Class Scott Sjostrom first spotted the Michigan man walking on the lake around 9:30am on Thursday.

The sight was especially odd considering how the man was dressed: in regular pedestrian clothes – not the heavy gear used for snowmobiling or ice fishing. He also wasn’t carrying a flotation device, and Sjostrom says he could have easily broken through the ice and drowned.

‘That raised flags right off the bat,’ Sjostrom told MLive.

Sjostrom and another Coast Guardsman then put on gear to walk on the ice towards the man who, though able to stand and walk, was clearly suffering from hypothermia.

‘When we got to him, you could tell the cold was getting to him,’ said Sjostrom.

‘He was very lethargic … He was shivering very bad.’

He also wouldn’t speak at first and had a ‘1,000-yard stare’.

When they got him back to the ship and started treating him for the cold, the man started talking and revealed his travel plans. It’s believed he had been walking for two to three days when the Coast Guard found him.

The Coast Guard then brought the man back to port just after noon where he received further treatment.

It was the first rescue by a Great Lakes ice cutter boat in four years. The boats break up ice on the lakes to clear travel for commercial shipping.

‘Most of us joined the Coast Guard to protect life,’ Lt. Joshua Zike, commanding officer of the Neah Bay, said in a prepared statement. ‘Our primary mission during the winter months is breaking ice to keep commercial traffic moving, but preserving life will always come first.’