A story from Vancouver Island, BC:

Bear Henry was stranded on a logging road for 74 days. Extensive searches were conducted without success. Bear had a camper van for shelter, a little food, and water from a nearby creek. No wilderness experience. Bear finally walked out as a last ditch measure, and was taken to a restaurant (not a hospital) by two loggers.

https://www.outdoorlife.com/survival/missing-person-bear-henry-survives-vancouver-island-woods/

That sounds like a very inept search effort if they could not fin a van on an existing road, especially employing helicopters. Untrained volunteers with no or little experience are often worse than useless but even moderately experienced people should be able to find a van on a road....

With all respect, I think judgments are highly premature and rather inappropriate. There were well trained searchers in the air and on the ground, but they had only had a very vague sense of where this person might be -- all they knew was "last seen somewhere around here somewhere, maybe." In BC backcountry, with tall fir and heavy underbrush, that is truly a needle in a haystack.

Details are unclear about the "road." Since this person had to foot-slog for 15 hours to find a logging road that was in actual use, it's reasonable to infer that he was on a goat path.

We are of course hoping for more details. Did this individual made any effort to be more visible? A brown van hardly sticks out in winter with snow and trees all around. Add some snow on top and it's perfect camoflage. But this is only speculation.

The takeaway, to my mind, is that staying put with a vehicle as shelter, access to water, and a bit of food extended the chances of an individual with no real experience. The walk out could have been fatal; but a win is a win.

A few more details are starting to emerge:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c...rness-1.6346962

You make a very good point. this newspaper account is rather scarce on details, but still '"they scoured the area" and didn't drive on all the roads, logging and otherwise, in a search duration of two months?

of course, building a fire or flashing mirror, like your rearview mirror, would have helped considerably.


Did their defined search area include the spot where the van was located?
I had not seen your second post when I wrote the above:

"The group used the opportunity to search for Henry, but did not search by foot due to a lack of information on a starting point, she added."
It is always advantageous to have more definite information but that should prevent the beginning of a search. i and my group have started and continued searches for equivalent lengths of time will equally hazy info - unfortunately not always with success.

FB group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/bearhenryismissing/

Not sure I would have stayed with the van for 10 weeks, especially when failed to attract the attention of a search helicopter.

Good post, Ren. FB is bizarro, but provides interesting context sometimes.

The intense, ongoing protest and blockade over logging in the area (which Bear was planning to join) adds complexity to the situation.

It appears that family did not report Bear missing for approx. 14 days citing mistrust of law enforcement,

I have been up the highways on either side of this area. It's beautiful, but massively overgrown as any coastal rainforest is. I wouldn't want to be stranded in that tangled mess. Give me the Rockies where I can see the sky.

I found a couple of photos that, to my mind, are relevant to the conversation: Bear's clothing and Bear's van.

Given the unusual heavy snow events that hit Vancouver Island this winter, I suspect this did not do Bear any favours during the search.

One report says he saw a search helicopter and waved arms, but could not get their attention.

[img]https://images.dailyhive.com/20220212104049/pjimage-47.jpg [/img]

I saw another photo where it showed that the roof of the van is white. So that did not help finding.

That van photo is cropped, was taken by someone in November, presumably just days before they were stranded. There was an implication the van was related to the dumped trash around it.

Part of the trash was a regular blue tarp, which you can see in the reflection around the rear tire.
Thinking that blue tarp would've been far better visible sign.