He went missing on Vancouver Island. A whistle and a makeshift sledge got him home
CBC
Dallin Beaumier did everything right.
The 33-year-old left a detailed plan with family and packed the right gear.
Even so, he ended up in several unexpected situations on his journey to and from Della Falls, smack dab in the middle of Vancouver Island.
What was even more unexpected, perhaps, was when he showed up on the doorstep of a local search and rescue more than a week after his harrowing ordeal began.
It all started when Beaumier, of Burnaby, B.C., began his journey to the falls on June 30. He decided to drive up to the falls, taking backwoods logging roads, after looking at the price of the water taxi generally required to get there.
He knew it would be difficult, and it was: on the way up, the muffler on his 2001 Chevrolet Cavalier car bent in half. On the way out, his oil pan struck a rock and leaked, and then his transmission started to fail.
But let's back up a bit, to what happened in between car troubles.
Beaumier parked his car and hiked about 20 kilometres to the Della Falls trailhead, where he took in spectacular views. On the way down on July 2, he camped for the night, alone in the campground — or so he thought.
"There was no birds chirping, no woodpeckers. It was quite silent," he said.
Then suddenly, he heard a growling sound.
"I was just like, what is that? A helicopter?"
It was a cougar.
Though he had taken a knife and bear spray into the woods, he didn't have them within reach, so Beaumier grabbed a large rock.
When the cougar retreated, Beaumier prepared to go to sleep on a bed of moss, breathing the open air. But he had a feeling the cougar was still lurking.
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