A Whitefish kayaker is safe after floating past his take-out on the Kootenai River and ending up in Idaho.
At 7:18 p.m. July 16, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office received a report that a 68-year-old man had failed to get out of the river with the rest of his party near the Yaak River Campground northwest of Troy. A family member said the man, later identified as Alan Lee Priebe, was hard of hearing and was floating to Idaho by himself.
The sheriff’s office organized a search team with David Thompson Search and Rescue, Idaho’s Boundary County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Forest Service, whose employees started searching for the man from a firefighting helicopter. Authorities also contacted BNSF Railway so that their employees could watch for the man along the tracks.
Two hours after the incident was reported, Priebe’s boat was found beached at the Leonia Bridge on the Montana – Idaho border. Two hours after that, authorities in Idaho learned that Priebe was safe and was hitching a ride back to the campground. They later determined that he had beached the kayak and then hiked 10 miles on a back road before finding some campers who gave him a ride into Bonners Ferry.