A lot of the problems I observe up here stems from folks that believe what they call "wilderness" is not what really exists here. Many think wilderness is a place where they'll bump into only 50 people a day, whereas, up here most places you can spend 50 days without seeing anyone! Once you're 10 miles from a community the odds are that any animal you see has never seen a human before.
So, we get lots that think a cell phone is sufficient and cell service should be everywhere they go. 90% of the North does not have cell service, and even a SAT phone is not 100% reliable.
When tourists (and often fresher locals) leave a road they have no concept of what to expect, and get into trouble, only to discover they are on their own.
In the case of this pair, they had no communication device, and when the bear came in, she ran to the canoe. Fortunately, she was spotted by a group of paddlers who had a SPOT, but being an early model, could only send a distress signal and approximate location. When it was relayed to Yellowknife, the weather was down so no immediate response could happen. The RCMP did contact a helicopter company that had a chopper at Norman Wells, and explained that they'd received a distress signal and the co-ordinates, ......could they mobilize and check it out?
Being the North, they got in the air, not knowing what they were looking for, but luckily finding the paddlers who explained the situation. They picked everyone up and reported the situation back to Yellowknife. As soon as the weather cleared they headed to Norman Wells where they could board a chopper and investigate.
Had the woman not been discovered by the other group, she was 50 miles from the nearest settlement and wouldn't have known where the incident even took place.
A month before, 450k out, a pair radioed in that a bear had destroyed their canoe, camp, eaten all their food, and had them pinned on a small point with their bear spray emptied. At least they had a SAT phone, and, luckily, were rescued.
It's estimated we have 3-5000 grizzlies in the NWT, all capable of getting a whiff of food from 10 miles away (I've seen this proven too many times), and no one expects a bear to show up?
Sorry for the rant!
