The couple, from Puyallup, Washington, had camped Saturday night at the Ipsut Creek Campground with a friend, Debra Adams, and had planned to hike out Sunday but didn't because the creek was running too high. When they tried Monday morning, Francis Blakely slipped off a log into the creek. Her husband then removed his backpack and jumped into the creek to try to save her.
While rescuers recovered his body Monday afternoon about 200 feet downstream, Mrs. Blakely's body was trapped under a log jam and crews couldn't recover it until Tuesday, when they had to resort to chainsaws to break up the jam.
