Lichen Lake canoeists found safe

 A late night page sent Cook County Search and Rescue out on an extensive search on Tuesday, June 11.

A 9-1-1 call came in at 9:37 p.m., reporting cries for help somewhere on Lichen Lake in the Lutsen area. The reporting party was on the north side of Lichen and it seemed that the cries for help were coming from the south side of the lake. The caller said they looked around and found a boat on shore with life jackets, bait and a cooler, but no people.

Search and Rescue personnel were at the remote lake by 9:50 p.m. and they requested that North Shore Ambulance be paged to standby in case someone had been in the water.

By 2 a.m., searchers had determined that the cries for help likely came from two people camping at site 1 at the Crescent Lake campsite who had been out in a canoe. They were finally located at 7:30 a.m. back at the campsite, where they told search and rescue what had happened.

The campers, a 38-year-old male and 39-year-old female from Minneapolis, said they had gotten lost and spent the night sleeping under their canoe.

When daylight arrived, they found the road and began walking (with their canoe). A car met them as they were toward Grand Marais. The motorist directed them back toward Crescent Lake. They left their canoe in the ditch and headed back to camp, planning to pick it up later.

No medical attention was needed.