PHILIP HOLMES/Sun-Gazette Firefighters assigned to one of several boats dispatched to Loyalsock Creek late Saturday morning, search for a missing kayaker.

An experienced kayaker who went on an outing in Loyalsock Creek on a gorgeous morning Saturday is feared to have drowned after his kayak upset in an area known as “the rapids,” about a half a mile south of Broad Street in Montoursville, according to the district officer of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

Emergency crews — using several boats — spent much of the weekend looking for the victim, but there still was no sign of him when Sunday’s search was called off about 4 p.m. as a steady rain fell.

“This is a (body) recovery at this point,” Hunter Shoemaker, a water conservation officer with the commission and the lead investigator, said Sunday shortly before the search was called off.

He said the victim was in his mid-20s from Lycoming County. “His family had been notified, but at this point, his name will not be released until the body is recovered,” Shoemaker said.

The victim, riding solo, along with a male friend and the friend’s 4-year-old son who were together in a second kayak, entered the creek up stream and were in the water less than 15 minutes when both kayaks upset in rapids about 11:15 a.m., Shoemaker explained.

The rapids contained “strainers” — items such as tree branches, limbs and debris that obstruct the flow of the water, making it very challenging for kayakers to get through, he said.

“Kayaking in this section of the creek can be kind of tricky especially with the amount of rain the region has had in recent weeks,” Shoemaker said Sunday as he stood along the bank, just south of the rapids.

“The added rain not only raises the water level, but brings down more trees, causing more hazards. The new tree strainers change the waterway from what a kayaker might have remembered in the past. Suddenly a kayaker finds themselves facing new trees that they now have to try to navigate around,” he said.

From what he was told, Shoemaker said the missing man was “a very experienced kayaker. However, for the father-son, who are from the Montoursville area, it was their first time that they had been in a kayak.” When the kayaks upset, the father and son, both of whom were wearing life jackets, made it safely out of the water, Shoemaker said, adding that the missing victim was not wearing such a personal flotation device.

“One of the biggest things the fish and boat commission tries to do is encourage the wearing of life jackets on boats regardless of one’s age or experience on the water,” he said.

Returning from a medical run on Saturday afternoon, a crew on Geisinger’s Life Flight helicopter crew conducted two separate flyovers of the creek, but there was no sign of the kayaker.

Several area fire boats were used in the two-day searches, including Williamsport, Clinton Township, Montgomery Emergency Management, South Williamsport and Picture Rocks.

Firefighters on Sunday were successful in removing much — if not all — of the tree strainers in the rapids hoping to find any sign of the victim.

“Strainers is one of the main causes of accidents for paddle watercraft. They can cause water to swamp a kayak, causing it to capsize,” Shoemaker said.

Using underwater sonar equipment and cameras, state troopers assigned to the Marine Division in Philadelphia responded Sunday and searched the creek. Additional boats as well as two drones from the region were used.

Both kayaks, badly damaged, were recovered from the creek on Saturday.

It is very possible that the victim is hidden in some “deep pocket” of creek, Shoemaker said.

“Water is ever changing. It’s unpredictable. Anything is possible,” he said when asked if the victim’s body might be swept quite a distance away.

This was the third drowning in the county in five weeks.

A man drowned after he jumped into the Susquehanna River on the city side of the Hepburn Street dam on May 17. His body was pulled from the water within 30 minutes.

Also on May 17, rescue personnel recovered the body of a 10-year-old girl from the river near Sunbury.