DUNCAN LAKE – George Pastorino knew the sound. The ice was giving way underneath him and soon at least part of his body would be in the water.

A casual snowshoe trek Wednesday, Feb. 4 in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness took a dramatic turn when Pastorino’s right leg broke through the ice. The incident happened in the northern narrows of Duncan Lake. Pastorino stayed on the right (east) side of the narrows as he and his wife neared the start of the stairway portage that leads down to Rose Lake. As they neared the end of Duncan, just before the area where people stash their canoes in the open-water season, Pastorino broke through the ice.

“I heard it before I felt it,” Pastorino said of the situation.

Pastorino spoke with Paddle and Portage Thursday evening (Feb. 5) from a cabin he is renting at Loon Lake Lodge up the Gunflint Trail. He said he hopes others learn from his experience that no ice is safe ice, and to always be prepared for what to do if someone breaks through a lake in the non-motorized wilderness. Carry a change of clothes. Have an emergency beacon or a phone that connects in the wilderness. Stay calm. These are the things Pastorino hopes people remember if they ever break through the ice.

“My right foot and leg dropped into water up to mid-thigh,” he said. “I wasn’t touching the bottom.”

That said, Pastorino believes it was fairly shallow where he broke through, “at least 3 feet deep,” he said. Nonetheless, falling into the water, even just a foot or more, can lead to disastrous situations when people are miles away from a vehicle or building of any sort where they might be able to get warm.

Duncan and the Stairway Portage are among the most popular spots in the entire BWCA Wilderness at any time of year. Winter travelers from nearby Camp Menogyn on West Bearskin Lake frequent the route Pastorino and his wife traveled Wednesday in the early afternoon. Their biggest mistake, Pastorino acknowledged, was staying to the right as they traveled up the Duncan narrows.

“Someone had already walked there, and the tracks looked reassuringly solid,” Pastorino said.

The circle in the narrows is the exact spot Pastorino broke through the ice. Submitted image

The Duncan narrows can be prone to slush and soft ice, even when other parts of the lake have more than 20 inches of ice, as is currently the case on the popular ice fishing destination. Staying to the left (west) is the key to traveling safely up the narrows as one is going from Duncan toward Rose. The Paddle and Portage team were with a group of people in 2018 on the lake when two members of the party broke through the ice in nearly the exact location Pastorino went through this week. Moving water under the ice as it nears Rose Falls and the creek flowing between Duncan and Rose makes the narrows prone to slush.

Pastorino first started coming to the Gunflint Trail in the early 1990s. He has stories about talking with the late Bruce Kerfoot he’ll share, along with the many lakes he likes to visit in the region, including Missing Link, Seagull, Loon, and a handful of others. He’s fallen through the ice once before, a few years ago on Crab Lake, when he was snowshoeing to Bridal Veil Falls. He was with former Cook County resident Beth Poliquin at the time on a guided snowshoeing adventure. That incident was also short-lived, with Pastorino being able to pull out a wet leg from the slush and ice before any more of his body entered the water.

Despite the incident shaking up the afternoon plans to hike to Rose Lake, Pastorino and his wife remained in high spirits the following day. They spent most of Thursday hiking on Seagull Lake at the end of the Gunflint Trail. That night, before a phone call with this reporter, the couple had a “fabulous” meal at Poplar Haus. Pastorino was firing up the sauna after the meal, celebrating another day on the Gunflint.

“I love how quiet the lakes are up here in the winter,” he said. “It feels like my soul is being rejuvenated out there.”

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In 2024, we featured a story of a Cook County resident who broke through the ice on Rose Lake while ice skating. Listen to that episode below.