Wilderness Survivor

[bobenns]

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-61969--.htm#61969

This couple from Penticton BC not far from where I live went on a drive to a Trade Show in Nevada, they took a wrong turn and ended up stuck way up a remote forest service road. After a few days he decided to walk out in search of help. 7 weeks later some hunters happened by and found her in the van, almost dead. There was nothing to forage up there, she lived on the little bit of food they had in the van and snow water.

I wonder if they were using a GPS navigator. There are a number of stories about people following bad routes and ending up stuck and lost or dead.

Moral of the story, always pack extra dry food when traveling back roads.

[pezar]

It looks like an area where as you said there was nothing to forage. I remember, once I got a flat tire on Lahontan Dam Road, in western Churchill County, Nevada. It was only a few miles from the Lahontan Dam SRA HQ, but I was too out of shape to walk. Even worse, I only had a little donut spare and a scissor jack in my Sentra. I'd been out there looking at lakeside property in the desert, and landed in a pothole. After about a half hour a park ranger showed up, and he happily changed my tire. I then drove 15 miles on the donut to Silver Springs, where I bought a used tire. After that I always kept a hydraulic jack, a full size spare, and a mobile CB radio in my car. I was lucky-I was actually stranded on a paved road, where LD Road turns from paved to unpaved on the way to Six Mile Beach. Some people get stranded in the desert and are never heard from again. It's likely that that woman's husband is long dead, the mountain lions likely got him. In most of Nevada, there's nothing to forage. There's a thin zone on a few remote mountain ranges where there is abundant food, but that's rare. I don't know if they were using GPS, but I'd say that it was likely.

[bobenns]

The lady is back home safe now and recovering. They are having a heck of a time getting weather to search for her husband, but I would say that over 7 weeks since he walked away from the van, he's toast. It was only about 16 km from the highway and he didn't make it, maybe got lost and wandered way off, I don't know how healthy he was. I could do 16 km on that kind of terrain in probably 6 or 8 hours depending on the hills. Its not even wooded its just weeds and grass and small brush from the pictures. People say they are hoping for another miracle. Well it was a miracle that she was found alive, but miracles don't mean God was involved. There was no miracle for CM and God knows there are millions of people on the African continent and middle east that need, in fact deserve a miracle right now. She was a religious person and I have have no doubt that her faith helped her, faith is an amazing thing for those that have it, its personal, and nice to see it at work. It can get you through where others will dissolve in madness.
I do a lot of back road, forest road travel in the summer out here. Its very mountainous and you get out of cell phone range quickly. I get off to places where I'm all alone and no one likely to come by any time soon. I like to think that I have enough brains and experience and common sense not to end up in a situation like they did. I'm going to buy myself a good jack-all, you know those walking jacks with the two pins that walk up the I beam with holes in it. They are usually orange and blue. They are real sturdy. I've jacked vehicles back onto the road from a ditch with those. I got up a road last summer that was quite an eye opener. I had checked it all out ahead of time on Google maps and forestry maps but didn't pay attention to the elevation. Well it was a long slow climb to a very high place and then a much quicker decent down the other side. Damn near burned out the brakes. And there were even forestry service camp sites up there, but no campers. Next time I go I'm taking the easier route.
CM went out there intentionally and was somewhat prepared to live off the land, I think its truly amazing that this lady survived 7 weeks alone, but then she had a little trail mix and water nearby, the shelter of the vehicle and probably blankets or something to keep her warm. You don't last so long exposed to the elements.

[bobenns]

They called off the search for her husband today. Disappeared without a trace. 16km from the highway. All he had to do was walk back down the road the way they dove in. Something went wrong.