Students save fishermen after canoe capsizes

Two Glacier High School students were at the right place and time to help save two men whose canoe tipped over in the Little Bitterroot Lake on April 25.

Brady Peiffer and Nick Brester, both 15-year-old freshmen at Glacier, were getting ready for a day at a cabin on the lake when they heard a commotion out on the water.

“We’re just unloading some stuff and we hear this big splash,” Peiffer recalled.

They saw a capsized canoe a couple of hundred yards out. Two men had been fishing and fell into the cold water.

Brester said that at first he thought the men might be able to right the canoe and get back in, but it soon became apparent that they couldn’t.

“Once I realized they couldn’t get back on their boat, they started freaking out,” he said.

The boys ran to shore where a man was just landing his boat for the day. Peiffer said he was just getting ready to leave. But with two men screaming for help in the lake, the boys jumped in the boat while the man drove out to help.

Brester said that one of the men from the canoe seemed to be in decent shape. The other appeared to be really affected by the cold water.

“One guy who fell in, he was completely frozen to the boat and like in shock,” Brester said.

As they inched closer to the capsized canoe, they tried to throw out some rope, but it was too short. Then Peiffer tried to get them to grab a fishing pole, but that came apart. 

Eventually they had to inch close enough to pull them into the boat. Peiffer said that it took all three people onboard to bring in the man who appeared to be very cold. The other man got into the boat under his own power.

Back on shore, some friends had dialed 911 and had blankets ready. Brester said that the men refused medical care because of the cost.

The men got into their van and drove away before emergency responders arrived. They didn’t exchange names. When responders showed up, the boys told their story.

Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said that reports indicated that the men had left before authorities could offer assistance.

There wasn’t much time for a “thank-you.” Brester said that one of the men was really concerned about his canoe, which apparently was new.

He did get one bit of information about the men. As it turned out, it was their maiden voyage together.

“The guy who was freezing cold and couldn’t move, he had just met the other guy like a week ago, and it was their first time fishing,” Brester said.

Reach reporter Matt Hudson at 759-4459 or by email at mhudson@dailyinterlake.com.