Saved, by Girl Scout cookies...

13 days in Michigan's UP

Interesting....An unintentional signal mirror(the windshield)saved the day...

Lessons learned? What do you see? I see:

1. Staying with the car (boat, etc.) generally proves to be the better choice than abandoning it and trying to walk out.

2. Having emergency supplies in the car pays off again, although in this case apparently a lucky coincidence.

3. A PLB would have cut a 13 day ordeal down to an amusing 1 day anecdote.

4. If you drive in the snow, down remote roads, etc., having correct self-extrication equipment is necessary (did/should they have snow chains?)

5. Snow country drivers might benefit from carrying a large, brightly colored tarp, etc. as an aerial signal panel, much easier to see than a white truck in the snow.

6. They were apparently sustained and comforted by their faith and they had their Bible in hand, emphasizing the important role of psychological/emotional preparedness and resilience in endurance of hardship and survival.

So glad this one turned out well. Congratulations to these ladies and their rescuers.

I saw this a while back and my thoughts then were along the lines of they did absolutely nothing right except stay with the car. But even staying with the car was probably not a choice but their only option, as leaving the car would have required them to walk.

Regardless of the outcome in this instance, GS cookies are not survival rations. They would have survived for this short while on no food at all. Even GS cookies require water to process.

You're right. GS cookies are about the worst possible choice for survival rations. They are, however, a big step up from nothing at all. They were lucky to have even that, since they were apparently otherwise unprepared for emergencies.

Other news reports say they had some other junk/snack foods, as well, which they were rationing to about 500 calories per day, and that they used the Sun to melt snow for water, which they ran through a coffee machine they had to get at least some filtration. They also reportedly walked down to the nearest intersection and covered the Stop sign there with a T-shirt, I assume with a message on it, and spread out brightly colored clothing to be seen by air. Additionally, they tried for a few days to dig out or extricate their truck. And, of course, they did manage to survive for 13 days, which is what really counts.

So, overall, not too bad for two middle-aged, unprepared, untrained ladies, in my judgment. Coincidentally, a family on ATVs also happened upon them at the same time as the rescue folks arrived.

This show me that there is some benefits of living in a small country, in my case Finland.
My country is so full of roads in the woods that at the most one has to walk perhaps 20km to get to one if you are in the middle of forrest. Of course that recuires a compass so one doesn´t walk in circles.