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RNewcomb,

I have to agree with Hikermor (as is common, we have a lot of similar experiences) that people did this for centuries without a PLB and some don't see the need.

Some also choose NOT to degrade the experience.
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Yeah, I thought about that.. that Quote, "Well, at least now we can yell for help and no one will hear us" is a good one..

However.. I have to admit.. When I read "Some also choose NOT to degrade the experience.", I laughed a little.. cause I thought "I think the Dog took the brunt of the degraded experience here.."

After a the bear attack, I think I would have wrapped that trip up.

Hope he's ok though.. sounds like he got in over his head.

Agree with these sentiments and those of JBMat. He ate his dog...

As for not wanting to degrade the experience, remember that while living off the land in days gone by, many people died in their not quite adequate attempts. Take the Donner party, some of those survivors resorted to cannibalism, which some folks consider worse than eating the dog. Not quite the romantic pioneering experience they were expecting. The only reason the Donner party folks didn't use a PLB is because they didn't have one. They also didn't have a GPS, good 3D maps or any of the other niceties we have available.

My dog cost more than a PLB.

I rank this gentleman right up there with another person who had to cut off his own hand when trapped by a boulder.I omit his name because Mr.Ritter had some legal issues from our discussion of him.The way I see it,gear distroyed by bear=trip over.Seriously injured on trip=trip over.Not having a communication plan, absolutely deplorable......

BOATMAN
John

Lots of chest thumping here. Not sure how familiar many people are with northern Canada, but google James bay and look at area to the east of it (where he was), you are looking at a wilderness size of 4 or 5 American states combined and there could be literally no road or town within hundreds of miles. To canoe there you are likely be dropped off by somebody in a plane, return to your starting point does absolutely nothing to help you because you are still in middle of nowhere. This isn't in US or UK where you can walk to the next town and call home from the gas station.

As for the self righteous "OMG he ate his dog people", gimme a break, easy to say that when your fridge is 10 yards away but if you are in his situation you'd do it too.

All the more reason to be prepared!

Here's a more realistic/detailed version of what really happened.

http://www.lafrontiere.ca/2013/11/02/cinq-tentatives-pour-sauver-sa-peau-2

Five tries, to save his skin
Injured and starving, Marco Lavoie made five attempts to make his way back to civilization and save his own life.

Having navigated two thirds of the Riviere Nottaway, between Lake Matagami and the village of Waskaganish, the adventurer injured his ankle.

On a remote river chock full of rapids that needed to be bypassed by carrying everything on foot, the injury left him in deep $£!+.

Misadventures

Mr. Lavoie left on the 17th of July on a two month trip with his dog, to descend 230 km [143 miles] on the Nottaway River to Hudson Bay.

After an uneventful month, his campsite was attacked by a bear. The bear damaged some of his equipment and stole his food bag.

But all was not lost. Armed with two rifles, he managed to hunt, trap and fish. He continued to descend the river. Two thirds of the way down the river between Lake Mattagami and the village of Waskaganish, he injured his ankle badly. There were dozens of portages to do, and the banks of the river being steep (25-40 feet high), it was too painful to portage. So he stopped for one month to heal the ankle.

The worst was yet to come

All his attempts to continue descending the river--which was starting to freeze up--failed. Finally he was forced to stop and wait for rescue, since the most difficult section of the river still lay ahead.The helicopter pilot, Claude Richard, says, "It was a good thing that he stopped at that point, because he wouldn't have been able to continue in his condition. Just below that point, there was a very rocky rapid, dropping 5 metres over 3 km. He would never have arrived at the end of that rapid on the right side of the canoe"

In time, food and ammunition became scarce. Hungry and incapable of obtaining food, he was forced to kill his German Shepherd to eat it. In spite of that, for one week before his rescue he had nothing to eat. An SQ officer Benoit Coutu, says, "With the weather and storms, his tent and sleeping bag were torn and wet. He had no matches". His boots and socks were also soaked. He took them off to try and dry them, but without fire, and with nighttime temperatures around -10C (14F), they froze solid, rendering them useless.

The man was finally rescued more than three months after the beginning of his trip. While being taken out of the forest, he expressed to his rescuers his wish to get a new dog and train it for search and rescue work in the bush.

Thanks for the link.. it's a good story, and some good lessons to be learned there I think.

If I was in the same boat... I hate to admit it.. I probably would have made the same decisions though. He'll have to live that for the rest of his life, which I am sure will not be easy.

I felt early on that it would be a mistake to condemn the guy with the info we had. Glad I waited for 'the rest of the story'. Looks like he worked hard to get out of there.

Glad I have a PLB.

After reading the info about where he was during this experience, it only reinforces my feeling that he should have had a PLB. He started this with his eyes wide open and didn't have a back-up in case things turned south early? An encounter with a bear in that small part of Canada should not have been unexpected. The possibility that a lot of gear and food could be lost should not have been unexpeected. If his "Plan B" was do make due and live off the land until rescue was triggered by time, then he had a pretty poor plan.

The $$ cost of a PLB pales to the cost of a good dog in money and companionship.

Glad to see more detailed information (and hopefully less frothing at the mouth).

Looking at the trip he was making, it's rough, wild shield country, and a wild, powerful river. The only way to self-extract is to run the river, including portages.

My feeling, from the start, was that a basic communication breakdown made his ordeal considerably worse. If I understand correctly, the initiation of SAR was delayed by almost a month because his family assumed he was taking extra time on purpose.

To each his own, but personally I'm not comfortable with a mushy return date. When travelling solo, I have always tried to set a firm date with a reasonable margin for delay, so that it's crystal clear when I am overdue and possibly in trouble. This gets the SAR ball rolling promptly, and knowing that keeps me from doing desperate things that might make my situation worse.

Philosophically, I understand the desire to experience wild country without the chattering of the wired world imposing on my solitude. But there is no doubt that a means of communication would have been a wise addition on solo trip like this.

Sat phones are prohibitively expensive for many, and SPOTs are only now finding their way into mainstream stores. PLBs are certainly the most cost-effective since prices have finally dropped to a point where I would consider one. But PLBs are not yet well known in the wider world. I suspect a majority of capable and experienced outdoorsmen have never even heard of them.