SULTAN — Two kayakers were rescued from an island in the Skykomish River on Saturday after they ran into trouble on a treacherous stretch of the river.
The kayakers, a man and a woman, had left Sportsman Park in Sultan and were heading toward Monroe.
About a mile downstream, they either turned or were forced into a debris-filled side channel, said Chief Merlin Halverson of Snohomish County Fire District 5.
“Because of the floods we had there was a lot of trees and debris in the river,” he said.
The debris is particularly dangerous, because people can get pinned and dragged under by “strainers,” branches, trunks and root balls that let the water through but catch debris or boaters.
The woman lost her paddle while negotiating the debris.
They beached on an island with no road access and called for help on a cell phone just before noon.
Water rescue units from Sultan, Monroe and Gold Bar were sent toward the stranded boaters, while a command center was set up on a farm in the 29000 block of Ben Howard Road.
“We couldn’t see those people but we had a good idea where they were,” Halverson said.
The rescuers found them unharmed. “Neither was in any danger once they got out of their kayaks,” he said.
An aid car took them to Sportsman Park where they’d left their car.
Rivers in the county are still full of meltwater and dangerous, and the Skykomish was running high and cold Saturday, Halverson said.
The kayakers were in the same location as another water rescue May 10, when four kayakers got stuck in the debris. Two made it to shore, but another was stuck in her kayak and a fourth was thrown from her kayak and got caught in a strainer.
All were rescued, and the woman who was throwninto the water was treated for hypothermia at a hospital.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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