POLSON — Local authorities are still searching for a Polson man who went kayaking on the south end of Flathead Lake and remains missing.
The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office joined the search Monday morning for Robert W. McDonald of Polson. Local search crews are using a specialized sonar unit to check areas underwater.
McDonald left from Bear Harbor Condominiums around noon on Saturday, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. He was paddling a yellow Eclipse kayak. At around 12:30 p.m., he texted a photo of the condos from approximately one mile offshore in Polson Bay.
McDonald has been a physician at St. Joseph Medical Center since the fall of 2013. He is a white male, 43 years old, 5-foot-9, weighing 185 pounds with gray hair and blue eyes. He was not wearing a personal floatation device.
The county’s dispatchers received a report about 11:15 p.m. Saturday that he had not come back to shore at Polson Bay.
Search and rescue boats, aided by two helicopters, searched the lake until about 3:30 a.m. Sunday and then resumed the search after sunrise.