QUECHEE, Vt. — A backcountry paddler from Vermont who has been making solo kayaking trips for more than 15 years has some girls to thank for rescuing him from a jam.
Mike Backman of Quechee was setting up his camp on an island in Lake Umbagog on the Maine-New Hampshire border when he tripped and shattered a bone in his arm Saturday.
The Valley News says he fashioned a sling and spent the night on the island before being alerted to his rescuers’ arrival by the sounds of giggles as an all-girls group paddled to the island.
Nineteen-year-old Anna Williams, a leader from the Plymouth, Vt.-based camp Farm and Wilderness, decided Backman needed help, so the girls paddled him three miles to shore. She called it a “good Samaritan lesson.”