Two people went through the ice on their snowmobile on Moosehead Lake Thursday but were able to pull themselves out of the water.
John Soares and Matthew Soares were fishing around the Moody Islands but decided to go to the back side of Sugar Island to get out of the wind, according to Maine Game Warden Nick Bartholomew.
John Soares, who was driving the snowmobile, saw a pressure ridge between the point and the island and slowed down, remembering being told not to go near visible marker buoys on their sled. Just then, as they moved slowly, the sled broke through the ice. Soares hit the throttle to try to get out of it, but the sled sank, Bartholomew said.
Soares got out of the cold water quickly. His passenger Matthew Soares, who was fully in the water, panicked at first but managed to get out too. The men walked to the tree line and called 911, they told the warden.
Bartholomew found the two men walking up the shore about 200 yards from where the sled had gone through. He could see the sled sticking out through the ice with open water and unsafe ice around it. He also said he saw the pressure ridge, which is not an uncommon occurrence on that part of Maine’s largest lake.
The warden did not say how deep the water was.
The men were wet and cold but coherent, he said. Matthew Soares was soaked through and said his hands were quite cold. Bartholomew gave them handwarmers and blankets and Matthew Soares some dry gloves because his were frozen solid.
The warden gave Matthew Soares a ride and John walked behind them to the closest house, where Greenville ambulance and Rockwood Fire Department personnel met them. The men refused transport to the hospital after they were warmed up, Bartholomew said. They were taken back to their vehicles at the Rockwood landing.
The men, whose hometown was not available, had rented the snowmobile from Moosehead Sled and Repair in Rockwood, which planned to retrieve it Friday.
