Survivor on Saganaga
I’ve always thought a season of the popular television show Survivor should be filmed on Saganaga Lake. Maybe if the producers would come and listen to our friend’s story about the night they just spent lost on Saganaga then we could have the show filmed right in our backyard. I suppose the producers wouldn’t want a Northern Minnesota location because the contestants wouldn’t be able to run around in swimming suits. Maybe an episode of Lost would be better but I think the father of three from Grand Marais will have to settle for the public humiliation of being on my blog.
I don’t want to come right out and say who spent a night unexpectedly on Saganaga so I won’t use any names. The Charter School Father and a friend decided to take a day trip onto Sag for an afternoon of fishing. The chef and his friend parked the trailer and vehicle at our place and I didn’t give it any thought until after it was dark and Mike asked me if they had returned. I said I didn’t think so and Mike confirmed this by checking to see if the vehicle was still there which it was.
I called Lucy’s mom to see if Ellen’s dad had planned to camp overnight on Saganaga. A chuckle confirmed my suspicion that camping wasn’t in the plans. The evening was pitch black outside but Mike decided to take the boat out to see if he could locate the man that works at Birch Terrace. A couple of hours later he returned alone.
Sunday morning at daylight Mike went out again in search of Flynn’s dad and his friend. He scoured the southern side of Saganaga and made his way over to use a radio at the Trading Post. He called me to let me know he hadn’t located them yet and I should call Bob Baker to think about activating Search and Rescue.
I picked up the phone and got a hold of Bob while at the same time I was monitoring the marine radio traffic. I was attempting to talk on the phone and heard a familiar voice cutting in asking if I was there. I replied and sure enough the voice of a man whose wife gives great massages answered me.
He confirmed his location, told me that they had been lost and were now out of gas. Bob wanted to know if they caught any fish. The answer was yes, but it was before they knew they would be spending the night in the woods so they had thrown it back and were now quite hungry.
Mike brought them gas and they followed him back to Voyageur. The temperature only got down to 39 degrees, they found themselves a nice little island and were able to make a fire and attempt to sleep during the night. It didn’t start to rain until this morning so the men weren’t too wet or cold. Over hot pancakes they told the story of how they got turned around and how darkness fell quickly.
The men called their wives and they were thankful all was ok. Maria wasn’t worried about her husband except for the fact she was worried that he was worried about her being worried. I’m happy the story has a happy ending and that Mike and I will most likely be treated to a good meal and maybe a massage for Mike’s act of heroics.