CBC New Brunswick - Boy Scout tricks save man lost in woods

Boy Scout tricks save man lost in woods

Last updated May 31 2005 09:44 PM ADT
CBC News

A Miramichi-area man who was lost in the forest for more than two days says fiddleheads and Boy Scout knowledge kept him alive.

Martin Cox, 58, went missing Saturday evening while attempting to clear a path in the woods behind his home in Nelson-Miramichi.

Martin Cox and his wife

He said he came across a logging trail and followed it, hoping it would lead to a nearby pond.

But he walked a little too far and before he knew what had happened, he was wandering aimlessly around a bog in the falling dark.

"And that's where I got all fouled up. I couldn't find the road back," Cox said.

"I got out of the bog and onto to dry land again, but then I just went around in circles. Because there was no sun or anything to orient myself."

To make things more uncomfortable, it started to rain.

Cox says it was too wet and dark to find his way out, so he decided to stay put and sleep under a tree for the night.

On Sunday, he discovered a pile of wood that some loggers had left behind and built himself a crude shelter.

Reasonably warm and dry, he stayed there until the rain finally stopped and the clouds parted on Monday. Then, using the sun to give him a sense of direction, he walked south.

All the while, Cox was dipping into his bag of Boy Scout tricks from almost 50 years ago.

"I had been eating fiddleheads and drinking water I had found. With all the moisture and dew there was water on the leaves and stuff and I drank that."

Cox followed the sun until he heard distant traffic on a rural highway.

He followed the sounds to the road, flagged down a car and got a lift back home – a distance of several kilometres.

When he arrived, he said he was given a mixed reception from his wife.

"I got a big hug and a kiss, then she kicked me in the ass for being so stupid and getting lost."

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