By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Searchers were on the water today with kayaks looking for a 24-year-old Olympia man who hasn’t been seen since Saturday afternoon during the Pe Ell River run.
Daniel Kuhn was rafting with several other people on the Chehalis River and was last seen near the Elk Creek Road Bridge around 4:30 p.m., according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff’s Cmdr. Steve Aust said Kuhn fell behind the group and indicated he would meet them downriver near the Chandler Road Bridge, but never show up.
The group departed after 8 p.m. thinking he may have left with other friends, according to Aust. They did not realize he was missing until yesterday afternoon when they made the report, Aust said.
The river run is an annual event held on the second Saturday each April in which participants navigate the river from Pe Ell to Doty using various floatation devices.
Members of the Chehalis Fire Department’s swift water rescue team used kayaks to search a three-mile stretch of the river this afternoon looking for any sign of the missing man, according to Aust. They found nothing, he said.
Kuhn had been using a small rubber raft.
He never retrieved his truck which he had left parked at the gas station on state Route 6 at Highway 603, Aust said.
Sheriff’s deputies are following other potential leads to determine if Kuhn may have left the area, he said.