A local carpenter, working with a crew on a Craig Point property on Big Moose Lake on Monday, October 1, is credited with getting two paddlers safely to shore when their canoe flipped over about 20 feet from shore.
The carpenter, who has requested anonymity, was on the grounds of the property when he heard a woman’s call for help. He ran towards the shoreline and saw two people clinging to an overturned canoe.
Grabbing some rope, he yelled to his co-workers that he needed help and ran to shore. By the time he got there, the woman and a man were standing in about five feet of water, and his crew members were running to the scene.
They assisted the folks in getting out of the water and with hauling the canoe to shore.
“They were cold and exhausted, but otherwise okay and very grateful,” the rescuer said.
He noted that they might not have been so lucky if his boss’s plans had not changed that day.
“We were scheduled to work across the lake, but we had a last minute change of plans.
Otherwise nobody would have been around to hear their call for help. It’s pretty desolate this time of year on Big Moose Lake—actually, it’s the same on all the lakes,” he said.
“Those folks were really nice people, but they did not know what they were getting into. The water may have been calm where they put their canoe in, but there are parts of the lake where it gets real choppy. And they were not wearing life vests,” he added.
