After two young men went off course between Chevak to Scammon Bay during strong winds Wednesday, it was an unlikely responder who came to their rescue.
Alaska State Troopers from Hooper Bay say search parties from three communities spent much of Wednesday night and Thursday out looking for 17-year-old Travis Wassillie and 20-year-old Jessie Kasayulie, who were overdue on their snowmachine trip.
But it was 74-year-old Francis Charlie, a relative of the two young men, who succeeded despite being in recovery from a bladder surgery just a week before.
Charlie told KDLG News he just couldn't stay in bed during the blustery night Wednesday, and that "somehow, somebody pushed" him to go and look in a different direction than the existing search parties.
His wife, Theresa Charlie, didn't want him to leave in his poor health.
"There was nothing I could do!" said Mrs. Charlie. "He keep wanting to go, he was so worried. The only thing I gave him was a bottle of holy water."
The elder said he spent the 2-hour search standing up on his snowmachine on account of his recent surgery and the bumpy trail.
Charlie thinks the boys probably got lost because the wind shifted overnight, and they weren’t looking out for landmarks like patches of grass and old snowdrifts.
"My grandpa always [told] me: every time you go someplace, don’t follow the winds, they’ll change right away." said Charlie.
Charlie found Wassillie and Kasayulie about 15 miles east of Scammon Bay on Thursday afternoon, and brought them back cold and wet but unharmed. According to Troopers, the young men had been attempting to navigate in the poor weather using a cell phone and ran out of gas after missing Scammon Bay.
A second search-and-rescue occurred the same night in the same area. Troopers reported that 50-year-old Johnny J. Mann and his 15-year-old son from Hooper Bay left by ATV for an overnight hunting trip Wednesday. When inclement weather became a safety concern, the father activated his personal locator beacon (PLB), alerting the Coast Guard to their location. Searchers out of Chevak found the two uninjured about 30 miles east of Hooper Bay.
In an online dispatch, Troopers urged travelers to carry a GPS navigation device as well as a PLB in case of emergencies.