Survival, and a spiritual rebirth

'Everyone had thought I was dead.'

By Jennie Zeitler

There are certain experiences that dramatically alter a person’s path. That is the case for Gary Mitchell of Breezy Point. Nearly 60 years ago, at the age of 27, he entered the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) with a friend and walked out alone a week later as someone entirely changed.

“I went on a late-season fishing trip with a friend,” he said. “Our canoe capsized.”

What followed was a week of survival that Gary has never forgotten.

Gary Mitchell of Breezy Point survived a late-season canoe trip into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in 1967. It’s an experience which forever changed the trajectory of his life. He is showing memorabilia from that time in his life, including newspaper clippings and a photo of the type of plane that was used in searches for him. Photo by Karen Mitchell

He grew up in South Minneapolis but spent summers “on the lake” at his grandparents’ farm near Grey Eagle. He stayed with them, Adam and Susan Folta, and spent time with his uncle Roy and cousins Arnie and Sharon. Gary remembers when he first fished at about age eight with his uncle Albert.

He continued fishing and also became an avid hunter with a BB gun.

“If it moved, I shot it,” he said. “I did that up until about three years ago, when I lost all desire to hunt. I just really love animals.”

By 1967, Gary had already taken trips into the BWCA about 20 times. His friend Don, who worked with him at Gopher Motor Rebuilding in St. Louis Park, had never been there. Don also didn’t swim.

“I’m kind of an adventurer. Don had never been into the BWCA, but he loved to fish,” Gary said. “We had a three-day weekend and decided to go. Nowadays, outfitters dissuade people from going into the BWCA in October and November.”

On a Saturday in October, they took in a 17-foot canoe with a small sideboard motor, which was allowed back then.

“We got in about twice as far as we would have with paddling,” said Gary.

They set up camp on an island in Hudson Lake. It was cold, snowing and raining. The next morning, they started fishing right after breakfast. About 1 p.m., they were probably about a mile from their camp. Gary had caught four or five Northern and had just hooked another. Don netted the fish, but it wasn’t all the way in the net.

“The fish flopped in his face, and as he threw himself backward the canoe flipped,” said Gary.

They were out of sight of their camp at that time, but they could see the island where the camp was.

“I thought, ‘This is not good,’” said Gary. “I watched the tackle box with all the equipment in it sink. Then I thought, ‘We can handle this.’”

Both men were wearing life vests. Even though the canoe was swamped, it was upright, and Don climbed in. He gripped it tightly.

It turns out that both men had experienced near-tragic water accidents. Gary recalled a childhood incident when he was 11. He and a friend had jumped in a river, but the water was over their heads. The friend was so scared that he wrapped both legs and both arms around Gary.

“We would have both drowned if we hadn’t passed a railroad trestle and grabbed it,” he said.

Gary found out later that in the weeks prior to their trip, Don had experienced a near-drowning incident. It wasn’t until later that Gary found out how petrified Don was of water.

After capsizing, Gary talked to Don, encouraging him that they could do it. Gary emptied the gas can and put on the cap, which in addition to the life jacket helped Don to float. But Don wouldn’t release his grip on the canoe.

Hypothermia had begun to set in, but Gary kept talking to Don.

“I still wanted to help him, but he wasn’t talking to me anymore,” said Gary. “He wouldn’t let go of the canoe.”

At that point, Gary knew he had to make “one of my life’s hardest decisions. We were both going to die of hypothermia if I didn’t swim to shore.”

By then, Gary couldn’t lift his arms, so he flipped on his back. His legs were able to kick.

“Over and over, I asked the Lord to help me,” he said. “Then my feet felt the rocky bottom. I was totally exhausted and just couldn’t move.”

He yelled to Don, but there was no response. Gary wasn’t sure if he was still conscious.

Gary removed his soaking wet, bulky sweater and put it on a large boulder, thinking that it would be spotted, and searchers would know that he got out. That night, it snowed 4-5 inches, and the sweater remained covered for the next week.

Gary was wearing a wool shirt, khaki pants, tennis shoes and overshoes. He didn’t have a compass, because that was in the tackle box. As he had watched the tackle box sink, he thought that helping Don was more important.

Gary planned to walk out in the same direction that they had canoed in. That first day, he removed his life jacket at a portage for rescuers to find. It was something he later realized was a big mistake.

Gary Mitchell and his friend, Don, canoed into the BWCAW using a sideboard motor, which was allowed in 1967. “We got in about twice as far as we would have with paddling,” said Gary. But that also meant that Gary had that much farther to walk out, during his six days of survival. Contributed image

It was hard walking along the rugged lakeshore. He fell a couple times and then got lost. He found a cave at a rockslide and sheltered that night on a rock ledge covered with pine boughs. It kept the moisture off him, and he was out of the wind.

“Tuesday morning, I heard an airplane and knew then that Don’s body had probably been found,” said Gary.

At that moment, Gary cried out to God that he wanted to believe in Him.

“I said, ‘Lord, if you show yourself to me, I will change my life,’” he said. “I was on the crazy wild side then.”

Gary found out later that canoeists had found Don’s body on Monday. Since the snow hid Gary’s sweater, the Forest Service had to consider that he drowned, so they dragged the lake. That took a couple of days. Divers came in and searched as well.

Gary kept walking. He spent Wednesday night on a rock, trying to be seen.

“It was not sheltered. I spent the night in the fetal position, with wet feet that were frostbitten,” he said. “They were numb in the morning. That was my lowest point of the week.”

The overnight low temperature had reached -14 degrees in the nearby town of Ely.

Thursday morning, Gary found renewed determination. He’d had no food since Sunday morning, and his energy was low, but he kept going.

After he saw a portage sign, “I decided to never leave the water again, to follow the water out.”

He also focused on finding better shelter that night.

“It was the best night of the week,” he remembered. “I slept well and felt good in the morning.”

That renewed hope stood him in good stead, since it started to rain and snow on Friday. He reached a river that he couldn’t cross, but continued walking.

“I came across wolf tracks that afternoon, which didn’t do much for my confidence,” he said.

A Beaver float plane was used in searches for Gary Mitchell during the six days he was missing and presumed dead in October 1967. A few years after his survival experience, Gary piloted Beaver planes for a living. “They’re a regular ‘truck’, solid dependable aircraft,” he said.  Contributed photo

A plane flew over him near Lake Two. He thought he’d been seen, but wasn’t. He reached another lake just before dark, which he was convinced was Lake One.

“The weather was starting to clear then and I got excited,” he said.

During the night Friday, he heard three rifle shots. He woke Saturday morning to a clear day. His feet were so swollen that they didn’t fit in the tennis shoes. He decided that he couldn’t afford to take off his shoes anymore.

An airplane flew very low over him, and although Gary was waving his arms at the pilot who he could see, the pilot didn’t see him.

“My energy was really low, but I kept walking,” he said. “I saw a red blaze on a rock at a narrows and could hear hammering. I yelled for help every 50 yards or so.”

He soon saw a cabin, and the resort owner finally heard his yells.

“He went to get a boat, and I sat down on a rock and cried,” said Gary. “I’d be seeing my wife and son again.”

His rescuer took Gary to the lodge and offered him a can of Dinty Moore beef stew and a can of beer. His shrunken stomach rebelled, though, and his reaction was to gag. The resort owner called Gary’s wife’s aunt and uncle, who lived in Ely.

“Everyone had thought I was dead. I found out that my wife had been ready to tell our son that I was dead,” he recalled. “Just then, her aunt called, and she never had to do that.”

“The whole time he was gone, everyone kept telling me that they were sure he wasn’t alive,” remembered Karen. “That didn’t make sense to me because they hadn’t found his life jacket.  When the phone call came, I was totally relieved and excited and so grateful to know that he was alive.”

Gary spent six days in the hospital in Ely. His feet were in a lot of pain. After his wife’s aunt and uncle drove him to Minneapolis, he spent another 12 days in the old Swedish Hospital.

“Both feet had turned completely black to a couple inches above the ankle,” he said.

It was a surprise to everyone that he lost only one small segment of one toe.

With time to think about his experience, Gary saw that God had shown himself because “I got out of there alive. God carried me out.”

Gary asked Karen to bring him a Bible. He started reading the book of Romans, especially Chapter 10, which says, “Believe in your heart that God raised [Jesus] from the dead, and you will be saved.”

Gary compares his spiritual rebirth to what Jesus described to Nicodemus in John 3. Romans 3:23 says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

After his rebirth, Gary’s drinking buddies gave up on him, but he found a lot of good Christian friends.

Gary has given countless talks in the nearly 60 years since he walked out of the BWCA, because he loves “to share Christ with people.” His story was featured in the Minneapolis Star Tribune and many other news outlets. In recent years, he talks mostly to Christian groups, to wild game feeds, and similar gatherings.

In every talk, he makes sure to tell everyone that “all people have sinned. It is by grace that we have been saved. It’s a gift of God.”

Gary often reflects on the good life that he’s had.

“I’ve been blessed to be married for 62 years. I have a son, Greg, and a daughter, Anna, and they love the Lord,” he said. “I’ve had a good work life, and I thank the Lord all the time. What I learned that week is that we can never give up. We have to keep going. We have to keep trying. I can hardly wait to get to heaven.”