I saw that. The tragic part is that the radio this morning reported that there were actually three reported sightings of three different SOS markings in the snow before authorities decided to do more than just check hotel registers and rental lists.

Edited to add a funny story:
A few years ago in February, I got a cell call from a friend who recently moved to Alberta but used to run a kayak outfitting company nearby. He had gotten a call from some people he knew who were visiting to do some winter kayaking around the ocean ice off of Rustico when they got forced to shore on Robinson's Island by the ice. They were fine as they had food for a day or so and there is an old campground where there were shelters for them to lay up in. They used their last minute of cell batteries to call my friend rather than for a rescue because they wanted to wait for the projected wind change rather than declare an emergency. The call was lost because they spent so much time bragging about how well prepared they were even though they were just doing day-trips and my buddy never got the chance to explain something rather important to them. It was then that he called me from Alberta to go check on them.

Long set up but here is the funny part. I live on the bay that is protected by this particular Island that covers most of the bay's mouth. So, I simply, filled a pack with hot chocolate and snacks, threw on my cross country skis and skied over to them. Yup, despite being prepared to be stuck somewhere for a bit, they failed to wander the 10 minutes to the south side of the Island to realize that the inside bay was totally frozen over and it was barely a 20 minute walk to the nearest houses, maybe a half hour to mine on the far side.

Eventually, I found them on the north side on ocean side of the island, poured them some hot chocolate and invited them to my home until the ocean ice cleared out. They said "you mean we could have just walked across the ice on the other side?"

I said, "Yup, either that or we can walk across the paved causeway to the mainland on the east side. \:\)

Last edited by Murph; 02/26/09 01:43 PM. Reason: spelling

With great power comes Awesome irresponsibility.