Wardens save 9 on canoe trek > Trip ran amok on Roach River

SPENCER BAY TOWNSHIP – After spending a cool, wet Sunday night huddled under canoes on the banks of the Roach River, five adults, four children and two dogs were rescued unharmed by wardens early Monday morning.

Warden Sgt. Roger Guay said a search plane spotted the group of nine people from Westport Island in southern Maine about 6:15 a.m. Monday on a bank of the shallow river in Piscataquis County.

“Nobody was injured. They were just a little cold, that is all,” said the warden sergeant. “They had just started to launch their canoes when the plane spotted them. They were pretty happy.”

Guay said the children, ranging in ages from 5 to 9, were extremely cold. “Using boats, we shuttled the kids to our pickup trucks where we had the heaters going full blast,” he said. Wardens transported the children back to their campsite at Jewett Cove, located on the east shore of Moosehead Lake. “They talked all the way. It was quite an adventure for them,” he said.

The warden identified the campers as Joel and Michelle Nein and heir three children, Mason, 9, Samone, 7, and Brycen 5; John Wallace and his son, Phillip, 5; Michelle Chartier, John Morgan and two dogs.

Guay said the party had been camping at Jewett Cove and on Sunday decided to take a canoe trip on the Roach River. Using two of their three vehicles, the party drove to Kokadjo. He said the group left the dam on the Roach River at Kokadjo in three canoes about 1 p.m. for the seven-mile canoe trip.

When the party did not return to their campsite at Jewett Cove by midnight Sunday, neighboring campers became concerned and called the wardens. Guay said the Westport Island party had told the other campers of their plans to run the Roach River.

Immediately, seven wardens gathered to search the river. A few of the wardens took boats up the river, but did not see the party of nine people. “It is a hard river to get to. It is a hard river to search, but we had guys lined up to walk it if the plane had not been available,” said Guay.

The warden said it rained Sunday night. “It started pouring really hard there around midnight and came down heavy until about 5 a.m. [Monday],” he said. Later, Guay learned the camping party took their canoes, flipped them over, propped them up, got under them and all huddled together to stay warm. “They did get a fire going for a little while, but the rain eventually put it out,” he said.

At some point, the warden said, one of the canoes had overturned in the river leaving its occupants wet. “They were all fine, but had it been 10 degrees cooler that night, we would have had some problems,” he said.

Guay said the Roach River doesn’t look like much of a canoe trip, but often people get in trouble because it takes “a serious day’s” worth of paddling. He said the party basically ran out of daylight.

“Looking at the river on a map, it looks like a short canoe trip, but other than in high-water conditions, you end up having to carry your canoe about two-thirds of the way because it is so shallow,” said the warden.

Guay said canoe trips this time of year can mean running the risk of hypothermia, which can be serious.

“It [the Roach River] doesn’t look like much, but it gets people in trouble because it is a whole day of paddling. This has happened quite a bit,” said Guay.