Two Anchorage boaters spend a night on Skilak Lake after rough water stops the crossing

Two Anchorage boaters spent a night on the shore of Skilak Lake, stopped by water too rough to cross.

Tammi and Brian Graff floated the upper Kenai River on Aug. 2 and got as far as the lake. They had no motor to push through: that stretch of the Kenai is closed to motorboats year-round, from the Skilak Lake inlet upstream, so boaters come down on current and paddles alone. Skilak itself allows motors.

A family member called Soldotna Dispatch. Troopers reached the Graffs by text message and directed them to Hidden Creek Trail, an access point in the Skilak Wildlife Recreation Area. A wildlife trooper met them there the next day and drove them to their vehicle. Their boat was picked up later that week.

It was the second Kenai-area stranding troopers coordinated in a week. Dispatches also record a July 27 rescue from an island at mile 73, after the water rose too swiftly to wade back.

Alaska Wildlife Troopers posted the account Monday, more than two weeks after the fact. It quotes no one and names no trooper.