Interesting story of survival

[astrozam]

Came across this news story about a couple missing from B.C who were on their way to Nevada, check out what they were driving...http://ca.news.yahoo.com/missing-b-c-wo ... 16426.html

[doyoulikeithere]

yup, 49 days lost in the woods with her astro van.
Poor husband tried to walk for help after day 3 and probably got lost.

Why was their van stuck ?

[astrozam]

Not sure if it was snow, mud, combo...but the lady was smart enough to stay with the van for shelter and that no doubt helped her to survive.

[Quill]

Proper preparation and insight would have changed a lot.

[T.Low]

Proper preparation and insight would have changed a lot.

While you are correct, accidents do indeed happen and it can be virtualy impossible to prepare for everything.

I've been following this. It was in the Owyhee area (which overlaps Oregon, Idahop, and Nevada.), about 60 miles from where we made our goal of finding the Three Corners Marker designating the georgraphical intersection of the three states. It is said to be the most remote area in the lower 48.

It doesn't take much rain at all before the road turns to gumbo mud.

It was barley raining on us when we were there and the driving was absolutely treacherous. Even the guys with Mud Terrains were white knuckled. And I luv mud driving.

I finally saw Vancouver news, showing the van about 30-40 feet off the road in the mud.

http://www.globaltvbc.com/video/index.html

Here's my Owyhee trip if you want to get a general idea of the territory.
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2405

[ihatemybike]

I just wonder if there was enough rocks or other stuff around to "pave the road". Done it enough times with my various off road excursions. Best one was off roading my Pontiac 6000 along a rail service road. Stopped to look at some stuff and sunk in the mud. Using the stock jack and stacking rocks etc I eventually lifted the car enough to stick used railroad ties under each wheel lining them up the direction I wanted to go. Had a couple extras beyond the current position of the car, got in and took off launching the car off the end of the ties with momentum on my side to keep me from sinking in again. Took two hours to extract myself from that situation.

[T.Low]

There is a youtube clip already, and a uniformed officer says that the family had been getting stuck and unstuck for two days beofre the husband decided to go for help.

In the Global TV link there is a photo where you can see that he had been tryinig to put debris under the tires of the van. If that had been going on for two days, he was muddy and wet already, possibly with standing hypothermia before he ever left the shelter of the van to begin with.

A guy on Expo brought up the point that the husband leaving for help did in effect save the wife's life. There would not have been enough food for the two of them to make it seven weeks.

Dreadfully sad situation.

[Smiliesafari]

Sad situation indeed. Any word on the husband?

[T.Low]

Nothing. They are still searchng, although the locals are refering to it as a recovery search as opposed to a rescue search.

[Smiliesafari]

Thanks, Tom. In that wilderness area I would suppose that there are a few critters that would make a meal of a human. The searchers may never find anything.

[Quill]

I am familiar with the areas. I know how the clay can turn. Think how things would have turned out if they had a short wave to transmit on. 2) made contact on a daily basis as to their location and next days destination. 3) proper gear if you are going off road for recovery, 4) think that the road is slick let's not go that way. You might say that hind sight is 20/20 but there is a proper way to travel the back country in 4x4, canoe, horse, motorcycle, bicycle or on foot. It's terrible that these things continue to happen. Out door enthusiast have been putting the word out for years.

[Kidhauler]

They had cell phones but there is alot of area up here where cells and short wave doesnt reach. When my son an I go dirt biking I always tell him if we get separated to stay put I will come back on my own tracks to where I saw him last. On one of our first rides he started down a road he thought I went on and scared the heck out of me. I was flat out race pace down the road to try and catch him. I had to explain that things will walk out of the bushes and eat you. Every time we go for a ride we see fresh bear tracks. It's always interesting when you ride up a trail and there is nothing but when you come back 30-60 minutes later there is a nice fresh steamer in the middle of the trail.

[doyoulikeithere]

I taught my sons to always carry a baseball bat when they walk the dog, right here in town.
I regularly have bears in my yard.

I'm just glad she survived! Sad for her loss.

[T.Low]

The hunters that found the van said they had to travel 20 minutes ( or 20 miles..or 2 hours, it was 2 something but I can't remember ) to get cell phone service to make the emergency call.

I may have said in an earlier post, when we did our research to overland thru the Owyhees, the BLM ranger strongly suggested renting a satelite phone.

From everything I've read about this, it seems obvious to me that they were never intending to get into such remote areas. Maybe not even get off pavement. I think they just wanted to take backroads from little town to little town, but and put too much trust in their GPS.

It's easy to observe the road surface change to to dirt whith your mind telling you it must be temporary because the GPS says this is the scenic route, so it will join up with asphalt in a mile or so (just aroound that next bend) and we will arrive in another quaint little town. Just over that next crest...well, I hate to turn back because we're probably right around the next few turns from it...

[T.Low]

Why was their van stuck ?

The area has a certain clay surface to the roads. It doesn't take much rain at all to turn it into Gumbo Mud.

while i generally seek out any type of mud to drive in for the fun of it, Gumbo Mud is a different story. Especially when you are 100 miles from not sure where. It only took a little rain to turn our road surface into gumbo. It balls up and won't release from your tires (or shoes for that matter). You can se it sticking to the rocker panels. Even for the guys in our group with Mud Terrains, it was treacherous driving.