Saved in the Bush

[happygilmore]

Anyone have any stories of hunters going out of their way to help you? You helping them? We tend to be wary and aprehensive twards other hunters, teritorial and sometimes downright nasty. My buddies and I have always taken the time to help where needed and have never taken any more than a couple brews for payment. Hunting Bigbar two yrs ago we ran into a couple of hunters on a fatwheel bike who had broken down so we drove our atv's back to camp got our tools and tiedowns and all headed down to his bike, well it was broke beyond repair so we tied the front tire down to the back rack and proceeded to creep back to camp... not an easy task, cliff on one side, narrow trail. It took us all evening well into dark to get them out. Greatfull you bet, they tried several times to give us a couple hundred we took a couple beers instead and sat around bs'ing. They turned out to be good guys and invited us down for a salmon fish...still haven't gone.

[newhunterette]

We had a story appear in the BC Outdoor magazine last year about our adventures in the bush and the good samaritan hunters who helped us out - it was very condensed in the magazine as the focus was on our daughter turning sweet 16 and wanting to be moose hunting instead of anything else - I think the thread may still be on here about it but I could post the original version here but it is abit of a long read.

Ali

[bighornbob]

I have pulled guys out when stuck, helped another guy drag a buck up a steep bank to the road., given guys rides back to their trucks. Last year I talked to a guy in the morning who was hunting grouse with his kid, about a hour later I find a camo jacket on the road. I recognized it as the one the kid had tied around his waist, I knew where they were camped so I dropped off the coat.

In the same breath I have been pulled out and have had a guy help me drag a buck out. It all comes back to you in the end.

BHB

[kanugglehead]

We had a story appear in the BC Outdoor magazine last year about our adventures in the bush and the good samaritan hunters who helped us out - it was very condensed in the magazine as the focus was on our daughter turning sweet 16 and wanting to be moose hunting instead of anything else - I think the thread may still be on here about it but I could post the original version here but it is abit of a long read.

Ali
If'n I looked like you, I would never be stuck.:wink:

[model88]

Have pulled out many stuck trucks in the bush, probably helped save a guys life a few years ago. We found his wife sitting in the middle of the logging road around a fire. They were trying to ride their quad up an old skid trail nearby when it flipped over. She was able to jump clear but her hubby was pinned down.

We managed to stabilize him untill the ambulance arrived.

Tried to help a fellow out last fall. It was the first snowfall of the year and I came around a corner to find this guy had slid off a corner kinda in the ditch. He asked if I could pull him out, but the road sloped towards the ditch and was extremely slippery. I told him that I had tire chains, they would be a little big for his "bald" tires but they would work. He grabed one and I grabbed the other, I asked if he know how to put them on, he said he was just going to lay it in front of the tire! I asked him again if he knew how to put it on and again yes. So I put mine on, climb out from under his truck and he is already standing there, I think darn he is quick. Go over to check it out, all he did was lay it around the tire. I said for $&^% sakes if you don't know how to do it then just say so, I don't mind doing it. He says that if I am going to be rude then he doesn't want my help! I grabbed my chains and the last thing I saw in my mirror was his tires spinning helplessly!

[highcountry88]

In October 2005, my 3 kids and I over 80 clicks off the road from Hixon (south of Prince George) towards the Bowron river and we busted the springs on the quad trailer and we were loaded down with all our gear plus two calf moose.
3 guys on ATV's from Prince George came and helped us come-along and chain the axle into place. They GAVE us the chain off their ATV's to hold the axle in place plus sacrificed a couple of long hours (of good hunting time) to help us get going....we made it all the way home to Abbotsford.

Thanks to you guys from PG, whoever you are!

[o2fish2day]

I got stuck last year... here is e-mail I sent my friend the next day. I was so happy to be out of there that when the two guys who stopped to dig me out got me going I dind't dare stop again so I just took off. I wished I had asked there names or something?!?!


Hey,

Thank-you for all your help. I apologize for the hassle and screwing up your work schedule. It's very unfortunate I got everyone so worked up.

Basically what happened....

I got to Skajit Valley Road about 6:00 am. Got fuel at the gas station and put on my chains. Started in and everything seemed fine... I drove up to silver lake reasonably fast and then started driving about 10 km / hour. Found my license plate at the second major washout in the snow where Pikey and I had gone the weekend previous. I was thinking...hey that plate # is just like mine...turns out it was mine!

Continued hunting, drove up the open cut on the north side of the road where I saw a huge hawk eating a gut pile that Pikey and I found the previous weekend. Ate lunch there and scouted the cut for deer for an hour. Drove down a ways and stopped on the side of the road . Not many deer tracks. Started following the only set of fresh ones and wound up getting turned around. Thought I was coming up on an open field in the oposite direction but it turned out to be the truck again! Thought wow! I had better use the compass with the GPS. GPS didn't appear to compensate for my direction when it couldn't pick up three satelites. Tried a second time walking in the direction of the field and found it. I hid under a tree and tried calling deer for another hour. The rain was pouring down.

Got back to the truck and started to drive further into the park. Noticed the road was really sloppy in there so I turned around and started to head back. Then I realized it wasn't just sloppy in there but everywhere the road was turning to a slushy ice!

Started driving for the exit - not stopping to hunt. The truck was all over the place...I was literally going sideways wherever the road had a grade to it with the nose of the truck pointed to the sky and the back wheels plowing snow like it was paddlewheeler. I stopped at one point and tried the CB radio. No response. I marked the odometer and figured I have to drive myself out. Drove 24 km from the park boundary thinking "I'm going to make it!" The truck was sloshing around like a boat in a wind storm.

Came up on a mud hole with a grade, truck went into a slide and the nose went into a snow bank. Tried to back it out and a chair broke off the left tire. Tried a few more times to get out but couldn't. Tried using the shovel but it was no use between the mud and the slush and no chain on one tire I was stuck.

I tried the CB radio and could hear truckers coming off the #5 but they couldn't hear me. At first I thought they were ignoring me. Tried CH 9 for a couple hours but no response. Looked at the map and estimated that I was 26 km from the end of the road. Thought about walking out and was trying to remember if Pikey had said he ran a half marathon in 1 hour 50 minutes or a whole marathon. Debated walking for 1km test using the GPS to measure to figure out how long it would take to get out. Decided at a minimum it would take 5-8 hours and I was better off to do it in the morning so I dried my boots and went to sleep. I had to run the engine every 2 hours to heat up the truck enough to sleep so I didn't get much rest.

In the morning about 6:30 I tried backing up the truck and because the ground was frozen I was able to move it back a bit. I decided to fish rocks out of the creek to give me some weight and then planned to try and drive out. I figured if that didn't work I would start walking around 7:30 and hopefully would make it by dark.

Just as I was down in the creek two hunters pulled up and helped dig me out while I loaded the rocks. Still with only one chain I managed to pull out after a couple attempts.

I think the root of the problem is I need a 4WD truck with chains on all wheels, winch, and an ATV backup in the tail....but I think I will bring that up with my wife at a later date when things cool off. LOL!

Anyways. I really appreciate all your help. Attached is a picture of the field, a picture of me standing at the field where I called deer and a picture of the snow in the morning before it turned to slop.

The rest of the story....

On the way down about 6km mark I ran into my Dad and my buddy who were just on there way to rescue me. They were following another hunter that was heading in. The hunter they were following said to them that he had one been stuck up there for 3 days and finally walked the 28km out. It took him from 4:00 am - 8:00 pm. (I am glad I didn't try it)

Lessons learned...

Truck should have bags of sand in it for weight and getting myself out.
Chains on all four wheels
Don't try to go in with a 2WD when the snow is melting.
VHF radio would have allowed me to relay off the aircraft flying overhead and get a message back that I was ok which would have allowed someone like Chris to rescue me at his convienience (ie: like after work) without involving search and rescue.
CB could use and amplifier turned out to be pretty useless that far in.
I need to know how many KM I can walk in one hour.
Winch on the truck would be handy - could have gotten myself out with that
Don't hunt the day before you have to be at work

The Coquitlam RCMP commented that I was actually quite prepared and was very good about letting people know where I was (sent an e-mail with Google earth locations) however when my wife first reported the incident to Hope RCMP they said they couldn't go down the hope road yet because they had no confirmation that I had even made it to Hope. They said she had to start with Coquitlam RCMP. As a result there was some preliminary investigation that delayed things. I suppose I need to either call when I go in and call when I leave each area or have some kind of check point at each location so people know who to ask if they saw me.


Later that year I bough a little 4x4 Suzuki which was much cheaper than buying a new truck. I will let you know if I get stuck this year!

[kennyg826]

Don't know the exact details, but my dad and a couple others help save a guys life quite a few years ago. They were moose hunting in the blackwater area and this guy stuck himself with his knife while skinning or gutting his moose. One guy stayed with him to tend to his wound and the other went for help at a nearby ranch. A chopper was flown in and he was transported to hospital minus a lot of blood.

[mapguy]

i do believe most of us have either helped or been helped out of a situation on an occaision or two

[srupp]

Helped out quite a few times...and been helped out..I dumped my quad 2 years ago and when I flagged down 2 guys on atvs they INSISTED on going back to help start my quad..turned out the second guy who spoke almost no english was here on holdiays from Switzerland where he has been a HONDA mechanic for 30 years..my machine a HONDA..and where I hadnt been able to get her started he had it purring in maybe 5 minutes using a metal pen body bypassing a valve in the fuel line..saved my 25 kilometer walk to camp...:tongue:


I cant talk individual cases but I carry a complete trauma kit while travelling anywhere and unfortunatley have had to use it almost every year on at least one hunting trip.. MVA accidents while enroute as well as lots of stuff from fellow hunters in different camps...

Steven

[bc sportsman]

1) Mid Oct some 20 yrs ago, my bud and I were just east of Anaheim lake in the flat, bog filled country. Two guys passed our camp early in the morning on ATVs going east on the trail. We left on our own an hour to two later and headed north on foot. Mid-day we heard a shot some distance away and since it was in the direction back, we decided to head that way. After about half an hour, we came on the hunters who passed us. One rifle, two knives, no jackets, no food, no water, no matches between them and they were heading north to Vanderhoof on foot (about a two hundred mile walk).

Seems one of them got off his quad to check a meadow, wandered a bit, got lost, fired a shot to signal his buddy. Buddy thought a moose was down, left his bike along all his gear (except he took his knife) and headed out to help out with the cleaning. He eventually found his buddy and now both of them were lost.

We offered to help, walked them back in the opposite direction they were headed, took an hour to get back to the road and we ended up just some 100 yds from where they parked their bikes. They said thanks and we never saw them again.

2) Hunting the Alaska Hwy. We were all in camp (six of us) when we heard a bang and a truck horn blowing down by the bridge that crosses a road near us. We ran down and found a guy unconcious. He had fallen asleep driving in from Northern Alberta and rammed into the goal posts of the bridge so hard that it actually moved the bridge support.

No radio or cell phone reception so we got a logging truck to drive to the Hwy and radio for help while we immobilized the driver (who was now incoherent and struggling to move) with a life jacket to support his neck. Helicopter arrived along with the RCMP and Paramedics. We all got a nice letter of thanks from the RCMP. News of us helping out the guy travelled quickly as he was part of a logging or mining crew and was driving back to camp. We got some horn honking and waves whenver the loggers saw us in the area. We never did hear from the guy though.

[newhunterette]

We had a story appear in the BC Outdoor magazine last year about our adventures in the bush and the good samaritan hunters who helped us out - it was very condensed in the magazine as the focus was on our daughter turning sweet 16 and wanting to be moose hunting instead of anything else - I think the thread may still be on here about it but I could post the original version here but it is abit of a long read.

Ali

Original:
How my daughter spent her 16th birthday!



I have a question. How many children actually get to go hunting with their mom and dad? Better yet how many young teenage girls go hunting with their mom and dad? Our story begins during the selection of limited entry draws. My husband, my daughter and I sat down with our limited entry papers and card, trying to figure out where and what we wanted to go for this season. A decision was made. We decided to put in for a shared hunt in the Cariboo Region for Bull Moose. Perfect area as we have a cabin in a sweet honey spot. So in the mail we send our cards and low and behold we are selected for the draw. A beautiful paper saying we can hunt for not one but two mature Bulls. The date is September. Perfect. My daughter would be turning sweet sixteen the day we leave for her first big adventure as a hunterette. We leave my two younger children at home with friends watching them and head for the cabin. My husband decides the best way to tackle this shared hunt is to first get a good night sleep, get up early and start scouting out some sweet spots. We come across a few good spots to check out as well as some spots from past hunts that were successful for our family. We find a spot that just blows us away, I stayed back in the truck as I was exhausted from a days hiking around and my daughter with her dad took a walk through this meadow. My husband sees a hint of brown and a flash of tan in the sunlight and glasses what he sees, A big beautiful monster Bull. He sends our daughter back to the truck to tell me to not get out and to be as quiet as a church mouse. She then heads back up to where he is calling the moose hoping to bring him down towards them. Unfortunately this wasn’t the day this big Bull wanted to co-operate and he snorted and went back into the trees. But we knew he was there and we saw all his signs of liking that area. We had to go home the following day but our draw was still open so up we came again the following weekend. Now the real adventure begins. We got up at 5 am Friday morning, I had packed up our lunches and being the cautious person an extra blanket, of course to the husband’s constant nagging of I pack too much stuff .My daughter just shook her head and said let’s get going, “I’ll carry the extra stuff.” Off we go to the spot where we knew “Mr. Big” was. Wouldn’t ya know it, there is another truck parked in our spot. Grumbling under his breath, my husband says, “we will drive around a bit scoping out the other spots we know and then come back and hope these are just looky Lou hunters.” Around 3 pm we head back to the meadow and oh my gosh excitement –no more truck – it is our spot once again. We quietly hike into the meadow, settling into a perfect hiding spot on the game trail Mr. Big has settled into. My daughter settles onto some logs, laying down to catch a few zzzzz’s, my husband picks up his moose call and starts giving a few cow calls, and me, well I sit as quiet as a church mouse. My husband perfecting his moose call after about an hour settles down to give a little break and “shhhhhhhhhh “ I whisper, “did you hear that?” I heard a grunt and snort, grabbing my binoculars I look into the trees and I see a flash of tan, then a huge body of brown. I start sputtering and gasping and can’t seem to get my thoughts and words to link together, finally a few words pop out of my mouth, “Over there in the trees, can ya see it in the trees, Look there,” well you can imagine the words coming from my husband, he says, “What trees, we are in the middle of a #@$%^&^ forest, take a deep breath and tell me again where,” by this time my daughter has spotted the moose and my husband is trying to figure out what the heck I am yammering about. I finally get my words together but I hear !BANG BANG! We all see Mr. Big, he is standing, he staggers, he falls. Staring at each other not saying a word we realize Holy Mother of $$#@**, we just got our moose. Now the work starts. My husband takes off up towards the fallen moose, I head up towards the moose, and my daughter heads back to the truck to get the packs and the knives, and whatever other gear we need to haul this massive critter. So much excitement going through us, from where we saw the moose go down to where we were searching for him, we could not for the life of us find him. By the time our daughter made it back up to where we were searching, she stands on a group of logs and says, “I see him over there.” Good grief we were looking in all the wrong places and she spots him in seconds. Finally to our trophy, we take the pictures as all hunters and hunterettes do. Now time for the “gulp” messy stuff. This is my daughter’s first official gutting of a big critter. She was holding the legs and asking Mr. Big where he got his nails done, playing with his nose and calling him Rubber nose, twitching his ears and just having a blast until the big splooooooosh of innards came out. My daughter the trooper says after that experience dissecting in biology class won’t be so bad. Now comes the task of hauling Mr. Big out of the meadow to the truck. Unfortunately because of a bad back injury I am not so much help and the weight (pardon the pun) of the haul falls on my daughter and husband. Unsuccessful attempt to drag, pull and carry this moose started the testosterone macho blood boil in my husband and he decided to try and drive the truck to where we are sitting. My daughter says, "Don’t dad you will get stuck.” And with a grunt he climbs in the truck and varooooooooooooooom it isn’t moving. Can you say gumbo; sticky mud up to the front suspension, up to the axel, up the creek is what we are now. Out comes the shovel and guess who is digging. Now it is getting dark out and here I am up in a meadow with a dead moose while Mr. I am such an idiot and my sweet daughter (using a vocabulary I never knew existed for her) are trying to dig us out of the mud. Not going to happen. Finally a decision, to cover the moose up with a tarp for the night (thank goodness for the change in weather to coolness) we hang out at the truck watching my husband frantically dig and dig and dig. Now you do remember I did pack extra food, ya just never know when ya might get stuck in the mud, but I don’t say a word, quiet as a church mouse, but at 11 pm it is now time to stop digging and face the facts we are sleeping in the truck tonight and hoping to find some nice hunters at first light to pull us out. At 6 am, Saturday morning, my wonderful cramped up husband has decided he needs a long walk to clear his head, off he goes to find help. About 2 hours later we hear a truck and laughter approaching and YES my heroes. Hubby has found two good Samaritans up early and willing to give up a little hunting time to help us out, little did they realize 8 hours after we would be out of the mud after exhausting all efforts with a winch, come along and massive digging and a quad. Building planks from fallen trees and jacking up our truck we finally were free of the mud. These fabulous gentlemen also drove their quad up to the moose and hauled it down for us and loaded into the truck for us. We invited them back to our cabin for a nice dinner and a few celebration drinks and a big thank you where we gave them a front quarter of Mr. Big for all their efforts. Now I will ask once again, How many teenage girls get to go hunting on their sweet sixteen birthday and have an adventure like this one? My daughter worked her butt off for this moose and she showed a side of herself that I will forever be proud of. We created a lifetime memory


We do keep in touch with these guys off and on to check in on them and we have one of the planks that was cut in our yard over our little creek as a reminder.

[Frango]

Sometimes it pays to be helpfull. We had hunted moose hard all day but no luck.On the drive back to camp we come around a corner and there is a truck in the ditch (Snow)I had a winch on my truck so we pulled him out.He offered us a beer , being polite we took it.I was about to open the beer when I see a big bull moose standing on the road about about 200 ft away.He was just watching the action.The 3 of us shared the moose and we finally got to open the beer.

[4 point]

I'll help out anybody anytime unless I see booze as the cause. Cause booze and helping can turn to trouble for the helper.

[30-06]

i wasn't personally on the rescue trip. but one of are close family friends got lost up boulder mountain 2 years ago. they split up and there suppose ot meet back on the road. well the one friend never showed up. so the guy started looking and looking couldn't find him. he he drives back to tulameen. gets search ad rescue. a bunch of locals from tulameen and they go looking for him .good thing the kid is bush smart . he found a river and followed it down the mountain right to the logging road . lucky guy . he fired off all his rounds to see if the friend would have heard him. went back to where he fired off all his rounds and sat for a while waiting for help . cougar tracks everywhere he said

[Gateholio]

A few years ago, I was stopped on the side of a steep road, glassing some deer.

An older guy drove past, said "You see anything?" I said, yeah there are some deer there, I think one is okay. I'm going to watch and see where they are headed, then drive up the switchbacks and hike down on top of them.

He tells me he only wants a 4pt and off he drives, up th ehill.

As he gets near the top, I see the deer are going to cross near him, and sure enough I watch as he stops, gets out and BOOM! I see the rifle recoil and then the sound.

I'm a little annoyed, as he knew what I was up to. I decide to see what he got, and maybe bitch a bit. So I drive up A little 2 pt. The fellow has one artifical arm, which I didn't see. He is struggling with the deer, so I gut it for him, and load it in his truck.

He is the happiest guy I've ever seen, commnets on how sharp my knife is, and offers me a beer.

It's 8 AM.

I say "sure!" and celebrate wiht him.:-P

He's a super great guy, and I was pleased to help him, and I was pissed at myself for originally being annoyed. I'm glad I kept my mouth shut when I first arrived, and didn't spoil his moment.

[Brambles]

Long story short

I had a moose down by myself, shot it late in the day and couldn't get it all taken care of. Grizz country, woke up a little late, restless night sleep and I wanted to make sure it was plenty light before I went to finish the job. Came across a hunter and told him my story, he said his son was hunting down a little further so we when down to were his son was sitting, they both volunteered to help me finish quartering and pack the meat up to the ATV's and took it back to camp in one trip. Funny thing is I had called my parents to tell them I shot a moose. On the quad ride out I see my dad walking down the deactivated road, he left home, drove all night and got the directions to my camp and where I shot my bull from a friend who had hunted with me until the day before I shot it. He is disabled and he said, " I wouldn't have been much help packin meat but I could have sat watch and made sure a grizz didn't bother you.8-):sad:

[Macgregor]

Years ago a few of us were driving into our hunting area south of P.G. and we came across two seniors packing up some gear from thier truck. They told us they had shot a bull moose down a really bad four wheel drive trail about five kilometres down. Thier vehicle couldn't get in there and they were going to pack it out. I told them to jump in the back of the truck and we would go down there. We drove down helped them with the moose and hauled it out for them. If we hadn't come along I think they would still be there. On the other side of the coin I have been helped out also.

[blindbob]

Years ago my friends Land Cruiser broke down on a hunt. He start the long walk out to get help while I stayed with the vehicle.A guy in a van came by with his young son .They had been hunting miles from us and were just going into town for some supplies. He hooked up a tow rope and pulled our vehicle for 45 kilometers.We picked up my friend about 8 kilometers from were we had broken down. He wouldn't take anything for helping us. I've never forgotten his kindness.I have never run across any hunter that has needed help since but will if I ever do.

[happygilmore]

Ok now for a Negative--

We were on the same trip I started this post with sheep hunt by Big Bar. We pulled over on the side of the road and had the spotting scope on the hood of the truck and were glassing the ridge above us. We spotted a decent ram who was close to legal and watched him for about 15min waiting to see his other side and waiting for the rest of our hunting party to catch up. Around the corner we see a truck comming and figure its them, well it turns out to be a couple of other hunters who stop right infront of our truck, we chat them up and tell them we spot a ram up there who might be legal and were waiting for our friends who are right behind them. They say "Well were going to go up there" We were like "pardon"? They proceed up the hill after our ram. I've never wanted to ring someones neck so bad. THE NERVE! I'm mad just thinking about it.

[dime]

I'll help out anybody anytime unless I see booze as the cause. Cause booze and helping can turn to trouble for the helper.

We had a funny experience in the Braelorn area about 6 years ago. We met another truck on a side road and stopped to chat, and the two guys in the cab were drunk. I mean the passenger was slurring his words and the driver looked like he was seeing double. We said goodbye and off they went. About an hour later we come around the corner and here they are in the ditch, flagging us down to help them out. I said if we get these guys back on the road they could kill someone, but my buddy said we have to help them (he was driving), so we pulled them out and they were off again.
We saw them that evening at the lake so they made it back safely, but I still had regrets about that one.

[valleycowboy]

this is kind of a help situation more like sad but made us feel real good(too a point)
a few years ago,my father and i were driving a logging road and came across a few whities on the road.there were 5 does and two spikes.as we watched, a truck drove up behind us.turns out the people in the truck were camping with a couple guys we know.when i talked to the guys in the truck,i told them there were a couple little bucks in the group.the young guy in the passenger seat,almost came unglued.i asked if he had ever shot a deer. he just smiled and said no and his brother that was driving said that he was leaving in the mornin.i told him if he wanted one of the bucks he better get out and shoot one.the young guy got out and loaded his rifle and i got him to rest on a log and i pointed out which was the biggest one.i was coaching him and them "BOOM",down goes the little buck.long story short,the little guy and his brother thanked us all the way up to the downed buck.the little guy was so siked when we got to the buck,it was just priceless.what really makes the whole story is when i talked to the guys the two brothers were camped with,8 months later.i found out that was the little guys last hunt and his first deer ever.7 months after the little guy shot his first deer,he passed away from cancer.

was glad i had a little helping hand in getting his first animal.it's funny how at the begining of every season how that story plays out in my mind.i will definately never forget it!!!!!