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.