It was a cool day in May when Shawn Muir, his father and a group of close friends made the trek from Kimberley, B.C., to the Wigwam Valley between Fernie and Elko. Their destination was a lodge on land owned by a friend, where they would do some camping and grizzly bear hunting.
They arrived at the edge of the property and hopped on their quads: a Honda Foreman 400, a Yamaha Kodiak 400 and a Polaris Sportsman 400. They loaded up all their gear and started off towards the lodge.
“It was May in the Elk Valley and the ice was still frozen,” said Muir. “Our good friend decided he wanted to take a shortcut. This involved crossing the river, then crossing back over upstream, then through a meadow to reach the lodge. The rest of our group decided against it and took the long way.”
When they got to the lodge, their friend was nowhere to be found. Muir and the rest of the group waited a little while, but as time went on they started to get worried and set out to look for their friend.
They split up and Muir went down to the river where he could see the quad tracks going across the river but he couldn’t see where his friend crossed a second time.
“Meanwhile, our lost friend—upon crossing the river a second time—had fallen into the frozen river on his Honda,” said Muir. “He went upside down straight into a log jam. He managed to free himself from the quad and stay free of the log jam and went on shore. He then had to wade back across the river, battling the icy waters, in order to make his way back to the lodge.”
Muir said by the time his friend got to the meadow after following a horse trail out, he was already hypothermic due to the extremely cold water. Luckily, he knew the land well and knew where he was going, but he was still in major trouble. While he was staggering across the meadow, Muir’s father was sitting on the front deck of the lodge and happened to spot him. As he collapsed, Muir’s father jumped on his quad and rushed to save the young man.
He placed their unconscious friend on the back of the quad and raced back to the hunting lodge. He was completely frozen and hypothermic and lucky to be alive. The men stripped him down, got a fire going, placed him in a sleeping bag and he slept for 16 hours straight, as the men kept watch throughout the night.
Meanwhile, some of the men went down to the river to see what happened to the quad. Gear including sleeping bags and a hunting rifle were strapped to the quad, which was still upside down in the log jam. Unfortunately, all the equipment had all been swept away with the strong current.
“To our shock,” Muir said, “all the beer we had packed was neatly stacked on shore.”
The next day, the group rode some horses down to the river to see how they could remove the quad from the jam. They were thinking they could tie some ropes to the quad and get their Clydesdale to tow it out of the river. But just as they were examining their options, a helicopter flew overhead and dropped off some forestry workers up the river. The helicopter then landed near the men and the pilot asked if they needed a hand.
They constructed a sling, hooked it up to the helicopter and flew it over to the lodge. After the oil and fluids were drained and replaced, the Honda was like brand new.
With the quad intact, plenty of ice-cold beer and a friend lucky to be alive, they continued on with their grizzly hunting adventure.
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