After drinking the water they’d brought, they filled a Gatorade bottle with snow and turned on the truck to melt it. “We were drinking little sips, here and there. she said.
On Thursday afternoon, the news on the truck radio said people were looking for them. They also heard helicopters searching for them.
On Friday morning, it was snowing and they decided to hunker down. “We watch survival shows and we knew if we started walking we’d get cold. We could hurt ourselves and that’s a really big problem,” said Sandulak.
The weather was supposed to be clear Saturday so they decided to walk out. They duct-taped their shoes and stuck their feet in garbage bags, then back in their shoes.
When the sun came up around 7:30 a.m., they were on their way. They walked for about 45 minutes in knee-deep snow then found tracks from a friend who had come looking for them on Thursday.
“Those tracks were a silver lining because they saved us from walking in the deep snow. We got more energy and a little more excited. … Then all of a sudden Cody’s phone goes ‘Ding.’ He said: ‘Did you hear that?’ I’m like ‘Are you being serious?’ ” said Sandulak.
“We rushed to get it out of the backpack and he had a whole bunch of text messages.”
Martin called his mother who was so excited she dropped the phone. Then he talked to an RCMP officer and sent him their location from the backroads map app on his phone. “They said: ‘Stay put. We’re sending the chopper.’ ”
Sandulak wants to thank everybody who helped search for them. People have already offered to help them retrieve their truck.
She’s hoping this won’t put an end to their adventures. The experience will just make them more prepared when they’re in the backcountry, she said. And she hopes their experience will make other people more prepared.
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