Two German tourists on a 3-week hard-core canoe trip in northern Manitoba had their canoe damaged beyond repair and ended up walking 11 days back to civilization.

It's remarkable that they made it out intact with nothing but bug bites (layered three deep, I'll wager, since black flies were part of the mix, from which God preserve us all). Obviously they had some significant bush skills, so hats off to them.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-german-canoe-crash-1.4266176

Not sure about the wisdom of the decision to walk out, but we don't have all the details.

But I'll bet they would have paid real money for a PLB, though. On a trip like that, I would swallow my pride, and break down and get one. That is genuine Wilderness with a capital "W", and it's easy to vanish without a trace once you start going cross-country.

Yeah, they did well to emerge unscathed. If they could tame and train the mosquitoes there you could probably saddle one of the bigger ones ride it out to safety!

Remins me of an incident that aired on the Discovery Channel recently. In 1927 a bush pilot was forced down 88 miles short of his destination. Walked out on his own with only a couple of candy bars he had in his pockets. This incident allegedly gave rose to the routine equipping of bush planes in Alaska with survival kits....

A follow-up story with more details, from an experienced paddler who came across the wrecked canoe:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/german-paddlers-unprepared-hayes-canoe-trip-1.4269352

When I was selling outdoor gear, I was continually amazed at how unprepared people were...I am shopping to hike the AT, yet have never backpacked a day in my life. And worse.

"If you can afford a 3 week vacation, you can afford a PLB ( $250 US) or sat phone rental"