Community Corner

Canoe Capsizes on Lake Minnetonka, Emergency Responders Stand Down

Friday's report of a vessel in distress turned out to be a wayward (unoccupied) canoe

An adrift canoe caused quite a commotion Friday afternoon on the normally quiet Robinson Bay in Deephaven.

Multiple emergency units from several Lake Minnetonka communities responded to Robinson Bay Road around 1:30 p.m. after receiving reports of a vessel in distress. First responders stood down after quickly confirming the canoe was unoccupied.

Mary Mithun owns the canoe responsible for Friday’s fuss. Mithun was at a meeting when she received a phone call telling her the fire department was at her house.

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“I came home and thought ‘uh oh, what happened?’” she said. “It turned out to be a big hullabaloo over a swamped canoe.”

Mithun speculated lawn crews doing a spring cleanup along the beach put the boat back in a way that allowed it to “catch the wind” and drift into open water.

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The canoe, she said, has been secured and will be retrieved once the weather warms up.

The Excelsior Fire Department and Wayzata Fire Department were among the emergency responders dispatched to the scene, which was officially cleared just before 2 p.m.


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