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NEWS: AROOSTOOK COUNTY
Two men rescued after canoe capsizes
Friends survive night in East Grand Lake
Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - Bangor Daily News
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DANFORTH - Two southern Aroostook County friends whose canoe had capsized in choppy East Grand Lake were found safe early Sunday morning by game wardens on a far shore after a midnight search.

Michael Hogan, 29, of Smyrna Mills and Briety Dow, 15, whose residence was unclear, survived a night on the water because they wore life jackets, one of the rescuing game wardens said.

Two wardens who cover northern Washington County, Jeremy Kemp of Carroll Plantation and Paul Farrington of Springfield, conducted the rescue that took place around 4 a.m.

They had set out in search of the pair soon after midnight, after one of the missing persons' families called in from a lakefront camp and said the two hadn't turned up in the early evening, as expected.

East Grand Lake is 22 miles long and up to 4 miles wide.

"We launched with spotlights and GPS [global positioning system]," Kemp said. "It was pretty rough with 2- to 3-foot waves. We searched 10 to 15 miles of shoreline and checked the islands in the middle of the lake."

The two and their overturned canoe were at last spotted on a far shore that was actually inside Canada's boundary line.

The canoe had capsized at 6:30 p.m. in the high wind. Although the men managed to right it, it was full of water. They hung on until they floated to shore.

The canoeists yelled when they spotted the searchlight, but the wardens could not hear them at first over the waves and the wind. But they soon spotted them.

"You couldn't hear a thing, not even our motor," Kemp said. "We found them safe and headed back to the boat launch about four miles away."

The younger canoeist was borderline hypothermic, he said.

They both were wearing life jackets at the time of the accident, which "definitely saved their lives," Kemp said.

Katherine Cassidy

bdnmachias@verizon.net

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