A Miracle
 

I saw on the news Wednesday an old friend who was a manager who worked with me in the old days was missing while deer hunting. He is in his early 70's and hunting in the vast woods of Vermont's rugged Northeast Kingdom. He never returned to camp Wednesday night and they started a search. The land is mostly paper company close to the Quebec border and miles upon miles of swamps with softwoods more suitable for deer, bears and moose than people. I just saw on the news release that they found him alive. I am not sure at this point if he got lost or got injured but he managed to stay alive for 4 days. It has turned cold and is snowing pretty hard right now so he is very fortunate to have been found today. Glad to have you back Jack old buddy.

I saw that on the news. Didn't know that you knew him CI. He is very fortunate they he was found today.

he was lucky but had he died out there doing what he loved ,I would still say he was lucky.

A folding USGA map and a compass can be a life saver. Enough basic skills to read the map and shoot a compass azimuth and the math skills to figure a back azimuth can be a life saver.

Lucky old timer. Had enough out door skills and the common sense to use them I bet.


:D Al

could be, don't know the circumstances. he could have had an accident and been hurt.

or maybe he just got lost, in which case his skills were lacking.

Regardless of how he got into that situation, he's certainly fortunate to have come out alive.

Wow 4 days in the north east kingdom woods. That is a miracle. What a story to tell. Did not hear about this at all.

It may not have been a miracle
 

if his gps went dead; he wasn't carrying a compass as a backup; he wasn't using a safety device and fell out of a tree.
Then maybe I'd call it a miracle.

Just had this kind of conversation with a friend.

If you hunt alone - make sure your "day" pack can make for a good "over-night" pack, if necessary......................

Sounds like his skills in the woods saved his life - God Bless !!!

Got an update from the news. They interviewed Jack and he indeed did get lost. When I used to work with him 20 years ago he hunted that area but according to the news hadn't been up there in the Kingdom for some time. He didn't have a GPS and not sure about compass. I suspect what must have happened is he did get twisted around and being 72 years old probably wasn't far from camp. Things change in that flat swamp area depending on timber cutting and he probably thought he was in one place based on his memory and wasn't. He survived at night by finding depressions with logs over and making a bed of leaves for cover from the cold. They found him about 3 miles from the border and he is OK.

Glad they found him alive CI. He was being watched over! Couldn't ask for more.

Thank God for allowing him to pull through so he can get out there again, I hunt alone now but if yall can there's safety on numbers , just a thought, glad he's ok

there goes the theory that his survival is a testament to his outdoor skills.lol

I suppose,I am glad to hear he made it though.

Not sure what happened or whether his age had anything to do initially with getting lost. The fact that he survived by digging in and creating a survival shelter says to me that there were some survival skills that came through regardless of his situation. I haven't seen him in probably 15 years since I retired but he was a big rugged guy when I worked with him.

Come back and tell us about it when YOU'RE 73.
Fact that he survived when a lot of younger people would have died in that time span.
Says quite a bit about his skills. And his determination.

or his luck. if he was so skilled why did he get lost in the first place??