You never know what might happen out in the real world, and tonight’s hike was a good example. Hmmm, this sounds a bit Forrest Gump’ish doesn’t it? Well, the hike tonight was lacking as far as the weather went (rain), but as usual we made due. What made this hike abnormal was our encounter with a guy who claimed his brother was lost in the park without a light, and our ensuing search effort.

We met the non-lost brother through some light flashing and yelling near the dividing line between Upper Thetis Lake and Lower Thetis Lake (the Trillium Trail). Without much of an idea about where to start looking for the lost brother — Thetis Lake and the neighbouring wilderness is pretty big — we decided to head off around Upper Thetis Lake in a clockwise direction, while the non-lost brother set off in a counter-clockwise direction. Did I mention that it was wet out? It really was, but over the course of the evening the rain let up, thankfully. After about 15-20 minutes we got far enough around Upper Thetis that we could see a familiar light across the lake (the non-lost brother). At this point, and somewhat miraculously, we the searchers were able to locate the lost brother audibly; we were really close to him, but were separated by water, meaning that we had to back track 15-20 minutes to get back to the Trillium Trail where we could reach him by land. Another 30 minutes or so passed before we and the non-lost brother were able to locate a cold, wet, and tired lost brother.

It took some effort, but we (searchers and lost one) made it back to the parking lot at Highland Road. I tend not to believe much in mysterious forces at work in our everyday lives, but it was interesting how things unfolded tonight. Play safe peoples, especially in the dark, scary wilderness (yes, I realize Thetis Lake barely qualifies as wilderness).

GPS Data: (Distance: 11km / Time: 3h26m / GPS Route)

Map of our hike / lost person search at Thetis Lake near Victoria. Click on the image to view GPS data on the Garmin website.