Canoeists carried
3 phones

By Matt Hawthorne

Youths involved in a fatal canoe accident last week were carrying three cell phones, a walkie talkie and a distress beacon when their craft swamped in rough seas about 120 yards from the north shore of Lutak Inlet, according to the trip’s lone survivor.

Jared Henderson, 19, and Alan Dennis, 17, both of Haines, died in the May 6 accident. Harley Whittington, 19, the third passenger in the 16-foot craft, survived after swimming to the distant shore.

“We didn’t even have a chance to look for the cell phones. The water started coming over and it just sank right away… The radios were sitting in the boat next to us,” Whittington said in an interview.

Dennis was last seen swimming for a backpack that held the phones in a waterproof container. Dennis thought he should get the bags “to get to shore and make a call, or at least try,” Whittington said.

Whittington, Henderson, and Dennis left from Tanani Point 10:30 a.m., planning to row 13 miles to Skagway. They got about a mile. 

Whittington said waters were calm when the group pushed off, but winds kicked up quickly when they were about halfway across the inlet. At around noon, the vessel swamped after the youths stopped rowing into the chop and tried running with the waves.

 All three were wearing life preservers when they hit the water, Whittington said. The trio locked arms. “We kept talking to each other, telling each other to keep kicking.”

When they spotted the pack containing the phones, Dennis swam to get it.

Whittington said they were in the water about 40 minutes and he was clutching Henderson – who had lost consciousness – until they got within about 40 yards of shore, when he could no longer hold on.

On reaching the shore, Whittington told troopers he climbed up on some rocks to try to locate his friends but didn’t see them.

Whittington scrambled several miles along the inlet’s rugged, steep walls before reaching the home of Lutak Inlet resident Frank Holmes at about 7 p.m. Whittington arrived disoriented, wet and shoeless, the bottom of his socks worn away, Holmes said.

Whittington told Holmes he thought his friends were dead and that he’d been able to warm himself with a fire he’d started with a butane cigarette lighter. He was examined by paramedics and released.

Haines police were notified the three were missing at 6 p.m., when Julie Henderson, Jared’s mom, phoned from Idaho, worried. Jared Henderson had sent a text message the night before, telling her that he and two friends would canoe to Skagway and spend the night.

Skagway police were notified a few minutes before word came to Haines, and a search boat was dispatched, along with a private helicopter. Additional Haines boats joined the search.

With Whittington’s information, the bodies of Henderson and Dennis were located that evening on a rocky beach a few miles southeast of the terminus of Lutak Road. Efforts were made to resuscitate them. The canoe was located nearby.

State trooper Josh Bentz speculated that Henderson and Dennis may have been getting into life jackets when they hit the water, as Henderson wasn’t wearing one when he was found and Dennis had his draped in his arms.

Whittington had been wearing a “tight-fitting, aggressive” type of life jacket, akin to ones worn by jet skiers, Bentz said.

Bentz said he has no reason to believe drugs or alcohol were involved in the accident. Conditions in Lynn Canal Wednesday included five-foot seas, 20-knot winds and a small craft advisory, he said. “It is crazy.”

On getting the rescue call, Bentz had a hard time believing the youths had even set out. With the day off, the trooper had planned to go out on the water in his own, 21-foot Bayliner, but had decided against it due to rough seas. “I was fairly certain they hadn’t left town because of the weather conditions.”

The steep, fjord walls of Taiya Inlet provide boaters virtually no shelter or places to come ashore.

 A pair of hikers who tried to walk the shoreline about a decade ago gave up, climbing instead along the tops of the peaks. Experienced sea kayakers who’ve traveled between towns have described perilous trips they were lucky to survive. Three area residents died trying to make the trip from Skagway in a 16-foot skiff in May 1998.

Friends and family members this week said they warned the youths against attempting the trip.

Whittington stopped in a Fort Seward convenience store  Wednesday morning, where manager Eric Ferrin heard about their plans to go to Skagway. “I told him, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s not possible. Even if you get in the canal, there’s no portages. If the wind comes up, there’s no way to get out of it.’ I thought I’d talked them out of it,” Ferrin said.

Leslie Whittington said she was unaware her son was making the trip. She thought he was staying in town because of a forecast of rain.

Ponda Dennis, Alan’s mother, said the boys had reassured their worried girlfriends that they were taking cell phones along.

Harley Whittington said he took courses in kayaking and canoeing, including a 45-day canoe course near Wrangell, and had rescue training. He said he was a little nervous about setting out and said the group should have checked a weather report and left more detailed information about its plans.

Henderson and Dennis were his best friends and skateboarding buddies, Whittington said. He went to the skate park Monday, but had no one to skate with, he said.