Two Alberta students find stranded hunter in remote B.C. forest

Two students from the University of Alberta were out conducting some field research in a remote area in B.C., studying the sculpin fish and its habitat.

They were expecting to switch out some scientific equipment but instead, unexpectedly found a lost hunter, CBC News reports.

“The chances that we found him where we found him before his health had deteriorated any more… that’s pretty profound,” one of the students, Tyana Rudolfsen, told CBC News.

For almost two days, Garth McDonald was lost with no food or water. He wandered away and got separated from his friends during his birthday hunting trip, according to CBC News.

Rudolfsen and colleague Jonathan Ruppert were working in the Flathead River Valley near Fernie over the weekend. They had driven from Edmonton and were heading to their last stop on their research trip when they stumbled upon McDonald. He was frantically waving at a passing search and rescue plane, trying to catch its attention, the Edmonton Journal reports.

“He was kind of staggering around, he was having trouble thinking straight and formulating words,” Rudolfsen told the Edmonton Journal.

The students quickly assisted the 67-year-old hunter and gave him a bottle of Gatorade from their truck. They then took McDonald into their vehicle and drove him back home.

His wife and son were out helping with the search, so they stayed with McDonald until they were sure he was fine on his own, CBC News reports.

“We were apparently the best present he ever had, he said,” Ruppert told the Edmonton Journal. “It was quite an adventure.”

Both students look forward to the next time they’ll be at Fernie doing their field research. They plan on stopping by McDonald’s home and reconnecting.