Two South Dakota women wore themselves out at the beach Wednesday - but not quite as they'd anticipated.

Carrie Shepherd, 22, and Ivy Shepherd, 19, swam the width of the river at Kimball Bottoms, commonly known as the "Desert," to help a drifting toddler and a woman who'd tried to save him.

The Shepherds were playing on the river's shore with their families when a toddler from a nearby group floated far out on the river on a toy raft.

By the time she noticed, the toddler's mother couldn't reach him, and the boy floated farther out, carried by the Missouri's current.

In retelling their reaction, Ivy Shepherd gave a slight shrug of the shoulders.

"I took off," she said. "And (Carrie) was right behind me."

The sisters left their own children with relatives on shore, grabbed a couple of toy rafts themselves and dashed into the water.

A member of the toddler's group swam out to reach the boy, but the current got ahold of her, too, and she began to struggle, Ivy Shepherd said.

So Carrie, hanging on to a child's float toy, swam to help the woman while Ivy continued after the boy. He was halfway out in the river, about 150 feet, when Ivy Shepherd reached him.

The sisters were able to help both to the opposite shore, where a boat owner picked them all up and ferried them back to their waiting families.

Cathy Lynn, who witnessed the activity in the river, said the boy drifted out quickly. A number of other people tried to swim to him but couldn't fight the current. The mother - who didn't want to be identified - was frantic back on shore after her own attempt to catch her son failed.

It was hard to believe that one of the women used a flimsy child's toy, "a 99-cent raft" for support, she said.

"It was so spectacular," Lynn said. "I'm just amazed that those two women would do that."

At 5 p.m., about a half-hour after the rescue, the Shepherds were back playing with their children on the shore, laughing about sore muscles from all that swimming.

Dave Gronos, who was on the beach with some friends, also saw the incident.

It's not surprising that the child went so far, he said. The current is dangerous, and not just for kids.

"If an adult fell off in the middle of the current, that's cause for concern," he said.

Nick Sevart, Burleigh County chief deputy, said officers responded to a call about the incident, but by the time they'd arrived, the child and women were safe on the Desert shore.

The sheriff's office has been trying to get the word out about safety on the river.

"This is the third type of incident we've had there in the last two weeks," he said.

One turned out to be less of a close call, but the other involved a girl swept downriver until a boat picked her up, Sevart said. The next incident might be fatal, and life jackets are a must for those who venture out into the river.

"(Swimmers) have got to realize how dangerous it is," he said.

(Reach Laura Schreier at 355-8809 or lschreier@ndonline.com.)