Mike Corey abandons 30-day solitary wilderness trek after 7 days
A New Brunswick man who planned to spend a month living alone in the wilderness has abandoned his adventure after seven days.
But it wasn't Mike Corey's encounter with a black bear or the driving rain that forced the New Maryland-area resident to signal for help from his GPS locator unit over the weekend, it was a sudden realization of what was important in his life.
Corey, an intrepid woodsman who has spent much of the past decade travelling the planet as a video-blogger for high-profile clients including Microsoft, Skype and the German National Tourism Board, had planned the excursion to mark his 30th birthday.
He said he wanted to take a break from the routine of technological dependency, slow down and perhaps find life's reset buttonin the New Brunswick interior.
"I was sitting on that rock thinking and I realized that that is what I've been missing in my life — just having really conscious time with people that I care about," he told CBC News on Monday.
"I travel a lot for my work, and so I'm gone a lot. Why, when I have an opportunity to be here and spend quality time with people that I care about, why I am I choosing, once again, to be gone, when I will be actually leaving the country again in couple of months?"
Corey, who is now home with family, had sent a GPS message saying: "Hey Guys! I need some help. It may or may not be a big problem, but I'll need a pick-up soon."
"I wasn't hurt or unhappy, just came to some realizations while I was out there," he said.
Trip not a failure
Corey, who spent months planning the trip, said his week alone was a "very wild experience."
"There was an immediate pang of loneliness" and a flood of emotions, including an intense fear of unknown noises, he said.
"This thing is coming at me from the woods, and I can hear it rustling, rustling, rustling and I'm fumbling for my bear spray and I'm yelling, 'Hey you, stop. Stop. Stop. Hey.' And this thing jumps out of the woods and I recoil — and it's a chipmunk," he said.
On Day One, Corey made another wilderness friend.
"Trees were moving, small trees, so I start yelling again and it was a black bear, maybe about 15 to 20 metres away."
Corey managed to scare the bear away and spent the next six days exploring the terrain and natural beauty in the Kennedy Lakes area.
Corey packed light, taking only two weeks worth of food with him. He said he was confident his fishing rod and wild berries would sustain him for the remainder of his woodland stay.
He also rejected bringing a tent for shelter, opting instead for tarps and mosquito netting.
He made the decision to pull out of the trek on Saturday, but Corey doesn't consider the trip a failure. In fact, it's quite the opposite, he said: He plans to spend a week alone in the woods every year from now on.
