Sorry I'm not able to post a direct link to this newspaper article which appeared in last Saturdays paper-I'm illiterate when it comes to linking articles to posts.Aardwolfe or other CDN forumites might be able to post a link to confirm this is a true story,as it happened in the province next to Aardwolfe's-British Columbia.As I'm unable to post a link I'll post the entire article as it appeared in my local paper.It's a bit long,but it is a very rare occurance,and amply demonstrates that ones mental attitude in a survival situation is of upmost importance.
Article by Ayesha Bhatty
Wolves stalk B.C. man through woods.
Spends 10 days lost in the wilderness with no food.
Vancouver-this was one dance with wolves Marcel Pinette wished he could have sat out.
The gold miner was camping in the northwestern B.C. wilderness when a pack of wolves attacked and killed his dog Buddy,then stalked and chased him through the woods for days.Luckily,he made it back to the safety of his family in Chilliwack last weekend with his terrifying tale.
In late June,Pinette,34,had been camping at Eva lake near Atlin,B.C.,60 kilometres south of the Yukon border.He had hiked into town and decided to return to camp by a different route in late June.This trip would prove to be the most unusual in a lifetime of hiking and camping.
A few days into his hike,Pinette found himself surrounded by a wildfire."Basically in every direction I looked,I seen smoke"said Pinette,speaking from his sister's home in Chilliwack,B.C. He decided to make camp for a few days until the fires died down.
On the last night,Pinette said,his dog,Buddy,"went snakey" on him,growling,snapping and rolling his eyes."It was a struggle to hold onto him."Pinette had adopted the 10-month-old Husky-Shepard puppy from an animal shelter.
"He was so smart...I'd explain my plans verbally to him every morning so he'd know what we're doing."said Pinette.
But at 3 a.m. that morning at the end of June,Buddy was attacked and killed by a pack of 10 wolves just a few metres from the tent.Pinette managed to scare the wolves away with a can of bear spray,but not in time to save his dog.
"When I turned around,all I could see was two eyes in the bush,"he said.For the next two hours,Pinette could hear the alpha male "clacking" his teeth.
A short while later,Pinette saw a wolf's paws digging under the side of his tent."I started hitting the paws with a hatchet,"said Pinette,hoping to drive the animal away.When that didn't work,he cut a hole in the tent and used bear spray to scare them away."I didn't want to hurt them at first,"said Pinette,but eventually he went at them "full force"with the hatchet and bear spray,managing to hit a few.
When Pinette accidentally knocked down his tent,another four or six were trapped inside,he said."I was hacking and smashing at those too,"said Pinette."I think I managed to kill all of them."
Pinette said the only thing he had in the tent was uncooked rice that he had double-bagged,but he said the wolves may have been attracted to Buddy's smell,which was still inside the tent where he had relieved himself that night."Other than that,this just doesn't happen"said Pinette of the wolf attack.The wolves stalked him as he moved on for safety.
His adrenaline pumping,Pinette took shelter in a tree."I had my back turned (as I was climbing up the tree)and one came up behind me and scared me,"said Pinette,who dropped his hatchet and fire kit in shock.
A terrified Pinette spent a day-and-half up the tree with no food or water,because he could still see three wolves waitng below.
"I was almost ready to give up,"said Pinette."The first thing I envisioned was my mom's meat pie at Christmas,and I pictured my nieces and nephews and family.Somehow I found the drive to keep going.My feet hurt,my back ached...Every
time I fell down,it was like something was pushing me and telling me to "Just get up and go," he said.
The next few days were a blur.He moved toward the sounds of power saws being used by the firefighters,and finally came across a river."I stood in the O'Donnel (River) for three hours just drinking water," he said.
Things went weird for the next few days...I may have lost consciousness a few times,"said Pinette,who estimated he spent 10 days lost in the woods,sleeping under trees and drinking from swamps."All I ate was one wildflower, and I spit that out because it didn't taste quite right."Pinette said he lost 35 pounds and is still 20 pounds shy of his usual 155 pounds.
On the ninth day,Pinette stumbled onto a gravel road and recognized a creek.He then walked for 12 or 13 hours,and slept in an old school bus that night.
The next morning,he came across a group of botanists,who rushed him to the Red Cross outpost in Atlin.
"He was dehydrated and his tongue was swollen,"said nurse Alex Miller,who attended to Pinette on July 8."He had terribly badly blistered feet...We had to cut his boots off him."
Miller said he had no scratches or marks,adding she would expect someone who had encountered wolves to be in a worse state.
A local mechanic who befriended Pinette recently said Atlin was "was about as wild as you can get."
"This isn't Stanley Park," said Pat Kennedy,43,a longtime area resident and avid hiker."We get bears,moose and caribou walking through people's yards lots of times through the year.I'm just glad the guy made it out alive," he said.
B.C. wildlife officer Matt Austin said wolf attacks are extremely rare in North America,but said there have been three or four cases reported in Algonquin Park in Ontario and one in Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island in the last year.
-CanWest News Service.
Sorry about the long post,but I figured we all could learn something from this man's ordeal.
Dennis <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />