Twice in three days, rescue personnel were called into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
A Colorado man was flown out of the wilderness Sunday afternoon and taken to a Duluth hospital for non-life threatening injuries, while on Tuesday a canoe paddler suffered a knee injury on Ensign Lake and was later found and transported to a waiting ambulance.
According to a news release from St. Louis County, around 1:15 p.m. Sunday the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch received notice of a distress signal from the wilderness via a Garmin safety device.
The GPS coordinates placed the spot of the dis- tress west of Contest Lake, in the area of Stuart River portage,northwest of Ely.
Garmin informed the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office they had updated information and that the injured party had a possible broken leg.
The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office Rescue Squad, Morse Township Fire Department, the Minnesota State Patrol - MART and Lifelink Helicopter service assisted in getting to the injured party and getting them removed from the wilderness.
The injured party is a 70 year old, Fort Collins, Colorado resident,whose name has been withheld pending notification of relatives.
On Tuesday, the Morse Fall Lake Fire Department and First Responders responded to a call that came in to Lake County Dispatch, for a paddler with a knee injury.
Members of Morse Fall Lake met up with the Lake County Deputy and Ely Area Ambulance to formulate a plan.
They motored across Moose and New Found Lakes, portaged into Splash Lake and paddled to Ensign Lake where they met up with the injured party. The individual was then transported to the waiting ambulance.
No further update was available about the paddler’s condition.
