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.