Friday, November 06, 2009

Full Circle
From the Duluth News

UPDATED: Body found on Lake Superior shore was missing kayaker

UPDATED: Body found on Lake Superior shore was missing kayaker

The St. Louis County Medical Examiner confirmed that a body found Thursday near Flood Bay was that of missing Milwaukee kayaker Douglas Winter.

6 comments:

Mine's said...

So sorry

Kate Foley said...

Silbs, I am so very sorry to hear of this conclusion. Perhaps Doug's family will take a small comfort in knowing for sure. I can only hope that your paddling group took some comfort of knowing, too, from your time with Doug's neighbor.

Please take this as an affirmation that the paddling community is truly tightly-knit -- most MN boaters will know of Doug as a friend of Silbs who's a friend of our own instructors and mentors, yet we followed his story because there are 0 degrees of separation in the loss of a fellow kayaker.

Silbs said...

Thank you, Kate for those kind words. We are a community.

mk said...

More sad news tonight out of Duluth-- I hope the the Big Lake provides him the peace he could not find in this life.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/151962/

Silbs said...

MK: Thanks for calling that to my attention. I have posted it on the 2 Eastern Wisconsin Yahoo sites.

We had all suspected suicide, but none of us thought about him using a gun.

some of us are struggling for closure.

mk said...

Silbs-

I did not know Doug but being in the world of paddlesports and being keenly intimate with the Lake that he had his last moments on, the lake I can see out my window as I type tonight, I cannot help but feel empathy.

On Tuesday, Split Rock lighthouse light its lamp in honor of the Edmund Fitz, as well as all of those that have lost their lives to the lake. I couldn't help think about this man Doug, who I didn't know... but who clearly had an impact on a community of people so important to me.

Megan Kress