By Kevin Harter
Pioneer Press
Copyright 2007 Pioneer Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Martin Rike was sure he wasn’t going to die wet and cold in the darkness.
The 500-pound Pine City, Minn., man’s first inner-tube trip ended shortly after it began when the tube was slashed by a sharp rock in the St. Croix River.
“I knew it was going to be an adventure then,” said Rike, 39, a part-time truck driver.
For 12 hours, rescue workers struggled with how to get Rike to safety after he suffered chest pains late Monday while inner tubing along a rugged and remote section of the St. Croix near Grantsburg, Wis. Each solution was thwarted, either by shallow water or Rike’s size.
Boats large enough couldn’t get to him. Those that could couldn’t accommodate him. The location’s rugged terrain meant a land rescue wasn’t possible. A helicopter was considered, but it likely wouldn’t hold him.
Still, Rike remained upbeat and confident after two friends went for help, as did his rescuers, who came from both sides of the river to help. While he waited and they worked, his ordeal was making national news.
“I never lost faith. I was sure they were coming,” said Rike, who was home with friends and family Tuesday night after being treated and released from the hospital.
The first call for help went to the Pine County Sheriff’s Office on Monday about 8:20 p.m. The call was then relayed across the river to the Burnett County Sheriff’s Office in Wisconsin, which contacted Grantsburg.
“They asked for a boat ... we don’t have any of the type needed, but we offered our assistance,” said Grantsburg Fire Chief Tim Harmon, who coordinated rescue efforts.
Rescuers knew Rike was on a stretch of river near Foxes Landing, but finding him as darkness fell proved difficult. It would take more than an hour before a Minnesota State Patrol helicopter spotted him.
Ankle-deep water prevented a state Department of Natural Resources boat from rescuing Rike. A pontoon would have failed for the same reason, so officials contacted a local man with a hovercraft. The hovercraft, which floats atop the water, reached Rike, but couldn’t carry him.
“It was very frustrating at times, but we kept on,” Harmon said.
Area firefighters train long hours for river rescues. But they had never tackled anything like this, Harmon said. About 20 Grantsburg volunteer firefighters took part in the rescue through the night, assisted by a host of agencies from both the Minnesota and Wisconsin sides of the river.
More than 10 local, state and federal agencies assisted in the rescue. There were no estimates of the rescue’s cost Tuesday.
Crews contacted the Coast Guard, which called for a rescue helicopter from Traverse City, Mich. But the aircraft turned back after rescue workers determined it wouldn’t be able to support Rike.
“It was an extraordinarily unique situation, but no one ever gave up. The commitment was phenomenal,” said Aarron Reinert, Lakes Region EMS executive director.
Rike’s family waited anxiously along the banks of the river near the ambulance.
“It just dragged on,” said his mother, Sharon Rike, of Pine City. But they never lost faith in the firefighters and rest of the crews working to save him, she added.
The first to arrive out of the darkness was Lakes Region EMS paramedic Tim Schreiner, who was lowered from a Minnesota State Patrol helicopter.
“Tim was a very good listener; he even laughed at some of my jokes,” Martin Rike said. “He took good care of me.”
Still, with no easy way out, rescuers turned from technology to tenacity and muscle.
Inch by inch, on a platform created by strapping boards across three canoes, they portaged -- or carried -- Rike.
“It took a lot of manpower, and we needed to keep rotating fresh muscles in there,” said Harmon, who coordinated the rescue.
“We moved quite a distance -- 6 inches at a time.”
They struggled for what seemed like hours until they could get Rike into water deep enough that the makeshift structure could be pushed, pulled and floated. Then they directed it to a landing where he could be put into an ambulance.
It was shortly after 8 a.m. when they were finally able to get Rike down the river to help. Rike’s spirits soared when he saw his family as rescuers loaded him into the ambulance.
“He was joking. He was happy to be out and kidding with the rescuers and thanking them for their help,” Sharon Rike said.
Martin Rike said he is aware his ordeal is getting a lot of attention.
“I can’t understand why I’m such a fascination,” he said. “The focus should be on the rescue workers and all the people that helped.”