Sam Benastick has been found after being lost for more than five weeks in a Northern British Columbia park. Photo: RCMP
When 20-year-old Sam Benastick left his home on October 17, he planned on camping in Redfern-Keily park for a total of 10 days. But after the 10 days were up, the camper hadn’t returned home and his family began to worry. Now, after more than five weeks lost in a vast, rugged wilderness, he’s been found.
Redfern-Keily park is a stunningly beautiful place. Sitting in the Northern Rocky Mountains, it’s full of pretty little alpine meadows, shadowy valleys, jagged peaks, sprawling glaciers, and huge valley lakes like Redfern, Fairy, and Trimble Lakes.
It’s a tourist attraction of sorts, although it is remote. There’s no running water or shelters for camping, and grizzly and black bears roam through it. Since it’s in Northern British Columbia, temperatures can plummet quickly in winter months, and while Benastick was lost, nightly temperatures dropped to below -20 C (-4 F) on some nights. Somehow, though, Benastick survived his harrowing ordeal.
According to reports, the camping hiker was found walking on a service road. He had two walking sticks for support and had cut his sleeping bag so that he could wrap it around his legs for warmth.
“You know, the guy says he’s in rough shape,” said Mike Reid, the general manager of the Buffalo Inn in Pink Mountain, B.C, to the CBC. “But man, for 50 days out in that cold, he’s going to live.”
When Benastick was first reported missing, an all-out search was started. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police sent out canine units and search and rescue teams from all over British Columbia. He was last seen on a red Honda dirt bike at the trailhead of the Redfern Lake trail, but on October 28, after days of searching turned up nothing, the teams were pulled back. The case remained open, however, and Benastick’s family and friends never gave up hope.
Despite their efforts, searchers found no trace of Benastick until Tuesday, when workers who were grading the service roads spotted him.
“They’ve been on that road for a week. And he said four-wheelers [and] snowmobiles were going up and down that road,” Reid said on Tuesday. “This morning, they had just started driving, and they said, ‘The hell is that person doing walking on this road?’ And he had two sticks, one in each hand, and it was Sam.”
His rescuers told authorities that after they called an ambulance for him, Benastick nearly collapsed. For Reid, who worked tirelessly to find the missing man, the case hit close to home.
“Right now, I … it’s amazing. I’ve got three kids myself, and for him to find his son, it’s just amazing,” Reid told CBC’s Radio West. Benastick’s father and mother stayed in Reid’s inn for more than 20 days in October while looking for their son.
As of this writing, Benastick is in a hospital in Fort Nelson, where he is recovering and waiting for his parents.
