By Brian Gawley
Olympic Peninsula News Group
PORT ANGELES — The kayaker who drowned in Lake Crescent early Friday afternoon has been identified as 37-year-old Travis Valenti of Massapequa, N.Y., according to an Olympic National Park press release.
The park was notified of an overturned kayaker off Log Cabin Resort at 2:10 p.m. Friday, the release said. Valenti was kayaking with his fiancée when his kayak began taking on water.
He attempted to continue paddling but ultimately had to abandon his kayak and enter the water, the release said. As Valenti’s fiancée tried rescuing him, her kayak overturned and she also entered the water.
Valenti’s fiancée was able to swim to shore, but Valenti could not, according to the release. Neither was wearing a life jacket.
Log Cabin Resort staff responded with a motorized vessel to Valenti’s last known point but were unable to locate him, the release said.
Bystanders and Valenti’s fiancée assisted ONP rangers and Clallam 2 Fire-Rescue personnel with locating the area where he was last seen, estimated to be more than a quarter mile offshore and roughly 400 to 500 feet deep, the release said.
Rangers searched by boat for more than two hours but were unable to locate Valenti. Another search was conducted on Saturday, but no signs of Valenti were found, according to the release.
ONP rangers said they want to remind the public that Lake Crescent is a deep and cold body of water, with surface temperatures that can drop to nearly 50 degrees this time of year. Sudden immersion into water that cold will impact a person’s breathing and, later, their ability to move their arms and legs.
“Swimmers are encouraged to use a buddy system,” rangers said in the release.
“Boaters should always wear a life jacket and understand the risks of recreating on large bodies of water, such as underwater hazards, wind, waves, and water temperature.”
A GoFundMe campaign to pay for locating the body of Travis Valenti has raised more than $50,000 from more than 500 donations since being set up last Tuesday.
The fundraiser, “Help us find Travis Valenti,” can be viewed at https://gf.me/v/c/gfm/help-us-find-travis-valenti.
Olympic National Park no longer has a dive team. A June 2019 incident report regarding a search for a woman west of Barnes Point referenced a dive team from Kitsap County.
When a diver went missing in Devil’s Punchbowl in September 2022, a Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe Public Safety and Natural Resource dive team was called in.
Rory Kallappa, chief of Public Safety and Natural Resources for the tribe, said Thursday that the family had called several times but since it is the park’s jurisdiction, they would have to be invited first.
“The body could be as deep as 500 feet, which we don’t have the capability to do. If the rangers call, then we’ll go. It’s their area. They know that water better than anybody,” Kallappa said.
Marlene Junker, Valenti’s fiancée, said in a Thursday voicemail that the family does have divers willing to go down and help look for him. She said in a later telephone conversation that Christian Aid Ministries had received a permit to dive in the lake.
A receptionist at the organization’s headquarters in Berlin, Ohio said Thursday, “We did receive a request to do that,” but that no one was available to confirm whether a permit had been received. An email seeking confirmation was not answered by late Friday afternoon.
Olympic National Park spokesman Amos Almy wrote in a Friday email that he was waiting to hear back from the person who would be able to confirm that.
Christian Aid Ministries has operated a search and rescue division since 2016 that currently has teams in Ohio, Arkansas, Illinois, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Virginia, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana and Pennsylvania, it said on its website.
Lake Crescent is the second deepest lake in Washington state, reaching depths of over 600 feet.
