On August 3, 2009 at 11:15am, RCMP Bloodvein Detachment were notified that three 17-year-old girls from Minnesota were missing from a canoe trip while on the Pigeon River.
RCMP Bloodvein Detachment, in consultation and collaboration with the RCMP Search and Rescue Team and the Manitoba Office of the Fire Commissioner, established that the girls, who were part of a Minnesota Canoe Club, were on a canoe trip which had begun 24 days earlier on McCuster Lake in Ontario. They were now on the Pigeon River in Manitoba.
Their group became concerned when three of their girls, who were doing solos as part of their canoeing adventure, failed to meet the rest of their group at Sturgeon Falls. The group contacted 911 via GPS and provided their coordinates. The four of the six remaining group members had been paddling the Pigeon River looking for the girls but were unable to locate them. They were now very concerned because the girls were in excess of 40 hours overdue.
RCMP Bloodvein Detachment chartered a Helicopter, and at about 2:30 pm, located the three girls about 20 kilometres downstream from Round Lake on Pigeon River. RCMP Cpl. Kevin Elliott was able to hover exit the helicopter on a nearby rock ridge and clear a landing area with an axe. As luck would have it, the girls had been found by four Brantford, Ontario canoeists who were in the area.
RCMP learned that the girls lost their canoe when it was sucked away by rapids at a portage on the Pigeon River. They lost some of their gear as well and ended up sleeping one night in garbage bags until they were spotted by the Ontario canoeists.
The uninjured girls were reunited with their group, though tired, wet and a little shaken up by the entire incident.
Cpl Kevin Elliott
RCMP Bloodvien Detachment
(204)395-2311
