A North Bay business owner has been instrumental in finding a man who got lost in a wooded area of Thorne while heading to his hunting camp.
Dave Bruneau’s help may also have helped save the man’s life.
Bruneau was passing by his late father’s home in Thorne last Monday around 6:00pm and noticed the man’s truck in the yard.
Bruneau said it was common for the man, who is from Bonfield, to park at his dad’s home and then take his quad for the trip to the hunting camp.
Bruneau says seeing the truck at this time of year was odd since hunting season hasn’t started.
But he figured his dad’s friend decided to make a quick in and out visit to the camp so he didn’t pursue the matter.
However he noticed the man’s belongings were in the truck, the keys were in the ignition, the vehicle wasn’t locked and one window was rolled down.
Later Monday night Bruneau passed by his father’s home again and the truck was still there.
He rolled up the window and left.
Tuesday morning the truck remained parked at the house and when Bruneau got to his shop at New North Exteriors the OPP called him asking if he was aware of the truck at his dad’s place.
When Bruneau told him he thought the man was at the hunting camp the OPP told him they got a call from his wife saying he was overdue.
That’s when Bruneau started to think the man got lost while on his way to the camp.
“I told the OPP the forest is very dense and I offered to take them to the hunting camp to help find him,” Bruneau said.
Bruneau knows the area well because it’s where he grew up and the OPP accepted the offer and the search for the man began shortly after noon on Tuesday.
Bruneau says they found the man about four kilometres from his dad’s home in the forest around 4:00pm Tuesday, roughly one kilometre from the camp.
“When we found, him he was sitting on a tree stump waiting,” Bruneau said.
“I guess he was exhausted from the night he spent in the bush. He spent a day-and-a-half in the forest without food or water.”
Bruneau said the man, who was dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved sweat shirt and cap, looked fatigued and talked very little.
“We had to get him to talk to us,” he said.
“Every time we asked a question he didn’t respond properly to the question we were asking.”
Bruneau adds the man, who is 72, seemed confused.
The OPP took the man out in one of their quads while Bruneau drove the man’s ATV back to his father’s home.
An ambulance was waiting for everyone when they emerged from the wooded area and the man was taken to the North Bay Regional Health Centre.
When Moose News talked to Bruneau, the man’s quad was still at his dad’s home and he hadn’t heard how the man was doing.
