PORT ANGELES — A boater whose craft was swamped in the Elwha River on Sunday swam to safety and was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter.
Daniel Muck, 40, of Nellie Lane on the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation, was treated for hypothermia and released from Olympic Medical Center.
He had been taken there by a Port Angeles Fire Department aid car after being flown to Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles.
Clallam County Sheriff’s Deputy John Hollis said Muck “just got caught up in the current, and his boat overturned” just north of the one-lane Elwha River Road bridge.
Muck swam to a nearby island. In the meantime, a friend who saw him enter the water lost sight of him and called the sheriff’s office at about 1 p.m.
Eventually, Muck was spotted on the north end of the island.
The rain-swollen Elwha was too swift to attempt a rescue by boat, so a Coast Guard helicopter flown by Lt. Cmdr. Todd Coggeshall landed “in a pretty tight spot” in a rocky clearing on the west side of the island at about 1:30 p.m.
