After a day and a night spent out in the woods, Peter Arends is back home in Nakusp safe and sound. The 77-year-old man had left his wife Etsuko at 8 a.m. on Thursday morning to go check on a friend’s cabin near Halcyon Hot Springs and then go mushroom picking.
On a whim, Arends decided to cross to the west side of the lake and hunt for mushrooms near Mount Odin. Unfortunately, his pickup truck died on a forest service road, leaving him stranded. Arends, a diabetic, was in need of insulin, and food which he didn’t have with him.
At home, the RCMP and Search and Rescue had been called out to look for him, searching known mushroom picking areas. Arends said he could hear the helicopters to the south of him, but couldn’t see them. At 2:30 a.m. the search was suspended.
With no traffic passing by and after walking to look for help, Arends spent the night in his vehicle, and set out walking the next morning, making his way to the highway.
“I bet I walked over a hundred kilometres on gravel roads,” said Arends on Saturday morning.
At last, a man from Salmon Arm picked him up and took him to the ferry at Shelter Bay. Arends said it was probably clear he wasn’t in good shape, and the crew called for an ambulance to take the elderly man to the hospital.
After being treated in the hospital, Arends was released and sent home. A good end to Friday the 13th.
