Missing for 8 days: RCMP find 1 canoeist dead, 1 survivor in north Saskatchewan

PINEHOUSE LAKE, Sask. – RCMP in northern Saskatchewan have rescued a woman who spent eight days in the wilderness after a canoeing accident that killed her husband.

On Tuesday, a float plane operator noticed an overturned canoe on Kinosaskaw Lake, near a set of rapids called Needle Falls. The pilot then spotted a body and called Mounties in Pinehouse.

Officers flew in on a chartered plane and found the body of a 66-year-old man who had been reported missing by his son eight days earlier.

“The male advised that he had stopped receiving updates from the satellite tracking device that his parents had with them on Aug. 17,” said RCMP spokeswoman Mandy Maier.

Searchers later spotted the dead man’s 62-year-old wife on the shoreline at the mouth of the rapids. She had a fire burning and was waving at the aircraft.

“The members hiked into the area where the woman was located and brought her out to the plane,” said Maier.

She was taken to La Ronge hospital but had no injuries

“She had survived eight days out in the wilderness using her extensive experience,” said Maier.

“So it was a pretty phenomenal story.”

The couple is from Prince Albert, but police are not releasing their names.