An airborne search resumed this morning for at least one person trapped on floating ice in Lake Superior -- even though it's not certain anyone is out there.
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter based out of Duluth began crisscrossing the area where one or more people were believed to be, a spokeswoman said.
The search began Sunday after two people at a restaurant along Hwy. 61 thought they saw a person or people trapped on a piece of moving ice.
Officials from the Coast Guard and local law enforcement agencies responded, and spotted something through a pair of binoculars. But officers weren't sure if it was a person or something else sitting on the ice, which had floated far out into the lake.
About 8 a.m., about four hours before the report from the restaurant, New Prague resident Richard Dollarhide was heading home along the lakeshore from a visit to Two Harbors.
"I looked out onto the lake, and there are these two guys in a boat, trying to chop their way through the ice to get to the open water," Dollarhide said. "You could see the path from their parked truck."
When Dollarhide spotted the men, they were between 100 and 150 yards from shore in what looked like a canoe or a bass boat.
"They looked like a couple of pretty determined fishermen," he said.
They didn't appear to be in any distress and Dollarhide said he forgot about the sight until he read about the search this morning.
No boaters were reported missing Sunday, the Duluth News Tribune reported.
