Boaters pulled from lake

SANDPOINT — Two kayakers and a dog were rescued on Lake Pend Oreille after one of boats capsized in rough waters off Maiden Rock on Monday morning.

“They were all in good shape, but they were cold,” Timberlake Fire District Chief Jack Krill said.

The rescue effort was mobilized after a 46-year-old Hayden woman made a distress call with her cellular phone shortly before 9 a.m. The woman said her paddling companion, a 56-year-old Wallace man, overturned his boat and was unaccounted for.

Krill said the woman made it to the rocky shoreline and placed the distress call. Unbeknownst to the woman, the man safely swam to shore, Krill said.

The two lost sight of one another because they ended up on opposite sides of Maiden Rock, a massive rock formation which juts into the lake, said Krill.

A Timberlake boat responded from Bayview, while Sagle Fire District personnel responded from Garfield Bay. Bonner County Sheriff’s marine deputies and a Sandpoint Fire Department boat also responded.

Krill said Timberlake personnel reached Maiden Rock in about 20-25 minutes. The jagged rock formation is located on the west side of the lake, about 6 miles south of Garfield Bay.

“We had south winds blowing,” said Sagle Fire Chief Rob Goodyear. “There were probably four-foot swells, easily.”

Whitecaps on the lake forced the paddlers to swim a short distance to Timberlake’s boat, according to Krill.

After the man was rescued, Timberlake moved to the north side of Maiden Rock to rescue the woman, who had a Labrador retriever with her. The pair was taken to Talache Landing, where they rendezvoused with a Sagle ambulance.

Goodyear said the paddlers declined medical treatment.

The two kayakers shoved off earlier that morning from Talache, which is a few miles north of Maiden Rock. Local lore holds that the rock formation is named after a Native American maiden who took a lover’s leap from the cliff.

The man was in a one-seat kayak, while the woman was in a two-seat kayak, with the dog in one of the cockpits.

“I don’t think they realized how bad it was out there,” Krill said of the lake’s conditions on Monday morning.

Both paddlers were wearing personal floatation devices, which Krill and Goodyear attributed to the positive outcome of the incident. The cell phone also proved critical.

As an added safeguard, Krill recommends boaters on Pend Oreille travel with a marine radio because of spotty cell reception on parts of the lake. He said handheld units are modestly priced and available at sporting goods stores.

Following last fall’s fatal fire on Lake Pend Oreille, Krill said a group of civilian boaters came together to offer their help with searches on the 148-square-mile lake. Krill said it was comforting to know the group was on standby and ready to help on Monday.

“It’s good to have them as backup,” he said.