The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
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Canoeist hospitalized after being pulled out of chilly Huron River
By Sean Dalton, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: March 27, 2008
A Whitmore Lake woman was pulled from the Huron River in Scio Township the afternoon of March 20 after her watercraft capsized and she was carried more than a mile by the icy water's current.
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The 63-year-old woman was canoeing with a 53-year-old Ann Arbor man when they hit a log and tipped over, according to officials at Washtenaw County Sheriffs department.
"Her friend walked along the river drenched and calling the woman's name," said Lt. Dieter Heren last Friday.
"He headed for the railroad tracks and walked through the woods looking for her. He wasn't on the shore when we arrived."
Sheriff's deputies arrived only to find the man's wet clothes on the riverbank. A passing motorist had picked him up and driven him down the river, Heren said.
The current carried her until a kayaker pulled her from the river and brought her ashore more than 20 minutes later, according to sheriff's officials.
"He thought she was debris or that a life vest was floating by, when he came to find out that it's this woman," Heren said.
She had been carried as far as East Delhi Road, according to Heren.
The woman was transported to University of Michigan Hospital by Huron Valley Ambulance. Scio Fire Department also responded to the scene.
"Her internal temperature had dropped considerably ... she floated down the river in freezing cold water," Heren said.
The woman is expected to recover from the incident, according to sheriff's officials.
According to Heren, the incident occurred on the woman's birthday.
Sheriff's Department Public Information Officer Commander Dave Egeler said the pair was lucky to have been wearing their life vests when they collided with the log.
"It's probably very fortunate for both of them that they were wearing life jackets," Egeler said Monday. "That really prevented this from being a tragedy."
Egeler, a former Sheriff's Department Marine Division officer, is familiar with area waterways and how to safely operate in and around them.
A heroic rescue attempt
The kayaker responsible for saving the woman's life said he was out on the water by chance that day.
"I was going to go out there Tuesday, but the last two days (prior to Thursday) it was snowing and I had to work," said Nick Richardson of Ann Arbor. He owns NJR Grounds Keeping in Ann Arbor and does some work in Dexter.
The 25-year-old businessman has been an avid kayaker for the past seven years.
"I started kayaking more in the winter because in the summer the water has been really shallow," Richardson said. "Normally I only spend two hours out in the cold weather, but I was (out) for five hours and was about to go in when I spotted something."
It looked like someone had lost a life jacket and paddle, he said. Then he saw the signs of someone frantically paddling down the rapids.
"I was four feet away before I realized she was a person ... it was shocking (and) it was weird timing. I was just about to leave."
Richardson described the woman's arm being frozen to the bone.
"Her arm was frozen into the shape of a hook because it was hooked around the paddle. I just hooked her arm on my kayak," since there is only room in his vessel for one person, he said.
Just as he grabbed her, the woman told him there was a man with her, Richardson said, and just then he spotted a deputy in the woods off the shoreline.
As he pulled the woman to safety under a nearby train trestle, officers met them at the shoreline.
"It was more timing than anything," Richardson said. "The police were where they had to be, because I couldn't get out into the water for more than a minute and I could only hold her there for 20 seconds (because of the current). We both lost our paddles when I grabbed her."
Richardson was wearing complete cold-water gear - two layers of Neoprene wet suits, gloves and a helmet. All the woman he saved was wearing was jeans, a shirt and the life jacket, which looked too big for her, he said.
"It was on her back, but lifted up ... it was extremely big and over her face in the water," he added.
Richardson couldn't think of another possible scenario that did not end in tragedy.
"It seems like the only other place the police would have been able to get her was down by the train bridge before Barton Pond," he said. "They might have been able to jump in, but I'm not sure if Barton Pond is froze over. I don't know if they would have gotten a boat there in the winter,"
Even with protective gear, Richardson says that any number of minutes in that water would have been dangerous.
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