"Lots of lively discussion (and more accurate facts) being discussed on the canoetripping.net thread. Seems like the english language papers are getting some of the facts wrong (eating his dog after 3 days, bear destroying his canoe). A poster by the name of Sturgeon translated a french article that seems to be a better account - the paddler was armed with 2 rifles and the bear didn't destroy his canoe - just stole his food bag. He didn't kill his dog 3 days later (source was some guy on twitter) but near the end of ordeal 3 months in. After the bear "attack" in August, he continued down river, hunted & fished for food for nearly a month. Then he got injured, couldn't portage, the weather turned, matches soaked, boots froze & he had no means of fire. Here's a repost of Sturgeon's writeup with square brackets being his personal comments...
La Frontiere - Cinq tentatives pour sauver sa peau
Five tries, to save his skin
Injured and starving, Marco Lavoie made five attempts to make his way back to civilization and save his own life.
Having navigated two thirds of the Riviere Nottaway, between Lake Matagami and the village of Waskaganish, the adventurer injured his ankle.
On a remote river chock full of rapids that needed to be bypassed by carrying everything on foot, the injury left him in deep $£!+.
Misadventures
Mr. Lavoie left on the 17th of July on a two month trip with his dog, to descend 230 km [143 miles] on the Nottaway River to Hudson Bay.
After an uneventful month, his campsite was attacked by a bear. The bear damaged some of his equipment and stole his food bag.
But all was not lost. Armed with two rifles, he managed to hunt, trap and fish. He continued to descend the river. Two thirds of the way down the river between Lake Mattagami and the village of Waskaganish, he injured his ankle badly. [Doesn't say exactly when.] There were dozens of portages to do, and the banks of the river being steep (25-40 feet high), it was too painful to portage. So he stopped for one month to heal the ankle.
[So after a month to heal, we're talking at least late September, I guess, if not later]
The worst was yet to come
All his attempts to continue descending the river--which was starting to freeze up--failed. Finally he was forced to stop and wait for rescue, since the most difficult section of the river still lay ahead.The helicopter pilot, Claude Richard, says, "It was a good thing that he stopped at that point, because he wouldn't have been able to continue in his condition. Just below that point, there was a very rocky rapid, dropping 5 metres over 3 km [16 feet over 2 miles]. He would never have arrived at the end of that rapid on the right side of the canoe" [I like that expression]
In time, food and ammunition became scarce. Hungry and incapable of obtaining food, he was forced to kill his German Shepherd to eat it. In spite of that, for one week before his rescue he had nothing to eat. An SQ officer (provincial police officer) Benoit Coutu, says, "With the weather and storms, his tent and sleeping bag were torn and wet. He had no matches". His boots and socks were also soaked. He took them off to try and dry them, but without fire, and with nighttime temperatures around -10C (14F), they froze solid, rendering them useless.
The man was finally rescued more than three months after the beginning of his trip. While being taken out of the forest, he expressed to his rescuers his wish to get a new dog and train it for search and rescue work in the bush.
[so i'm guessing late August the bear attacks, late Septmber he hurts his ankle, mid October he kills his dog. Last week of October he has nothing at all to eat. Rescued end of October] "
CORRECTION - DETAILS re "A Bear Ate His Food..."
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Originally Posted by tsitenha
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