Workers pull logging vehicle from Portage Lake

PORTAGE LAKE, Maine — Workers using heavy equipment successfully extricated a logging vehicle from Portage Lake late Wednesday afternoon.

The grapple skidder broke through the ice while attempting to cross the lake in Aroostook County last Thursday and remained stuck about 200 feet from shore in a shallow, boggy area. Workers from M. Rafford Construction of Ashland spent more than eight hours maneuvering heavy equipment and pieces of wood for traction in windy conditions trying to gain leverage to lift the heavy skidder out of the ice and mud.

Gary Belanger, owner of grapple skidder, brought his other cable skidder to help gain more leverage with the M. Rafford Construction excavator to maneuver the grapple skidder. The rear wheel was completely submerged below the ice, and the suction of the peat mud from the bog made the job exceedingly difficult.

“I checked the ice and it was plenty thick,” Belanger said. “When I got [to the other side] I thought all of this was frozen.”

Belanger was headed to a friend’s place to get a welding job done on his grapple skidder’s blade and set out from the landing at the end of Hathaway Road. However, when he reached the other side close to the snowmobile trail he broke through the ice.

Ian Rafford went out to the extraction site from the west side of Portage Lake on an old winter road going past Mosquito Brook and coming down Hutchinson Ridge leading to the bog where Belanger was stuck.

The M. Rafford Construction crew took about a day and half to get the excavator out to Portage Lake at 4 p.m. on Tuesday according to Rafford. They returned the next day at 6 a.m. to help Belanger.

The extraction was the worst Rafford had seen, and last year he had helped Belanger pull the same logging vehicle out of a skidder road.

They succeeded in towing it to shore at approximately 5 p.m.

The two skidders and excavator will stay at the extraction site for two nights until the ice refreezes and they can drive the vehicles back across the lake. Rafford Construction and Belanger will return on Friday to get the vehicles out of the area.

A Maine DEP official said the department does not plan to levy a fine but may charge for costs associated with the operation. Any oil spilled will be cleaned up after the skidder is out of the ice and mud.