Robert Marleau is happy to be resting in a bed at his uncle's home in Bonfield today.
That’s because last night he experienced the worst night of his life when he went missing in the bush near that town.
The 27-year-old Pickering, Ontario native traveled north with his dad to go hunting for deer with his cousin and his uncle who are both from Bonfield.
“I got my deer tags so I wanted to get a deer because I only started hunting about two years ago,” Marleau said, noting that he has hunted moose in the past.
Marleau admits he was too eager to get started and thus he and his dad, both inexperienced hunters, set out into the bush without their more experienced relatives. That was Marleau’s first mistake.
“I was just really eager to get a deer and we went in the bush before the other experienced hunters came with a plan because the plan was to go to the same spots as before,” said Marleau.
His plan was to go to the other side of the nearby lake. That was mistake number two.
He went in around 4:20 and realized he was lost at 5:30 p.m. and didn’t realize how early it started to get dark.
Then he tried to make his way through a swamp where things got a lot worse.
“I was in the swamp waist deep and I didn’t know how deep the swamp was,” Marleau told BayToday.ca
“Like just before I tried to jump around about 30 trees or whatever and then fell, I could have broken my arm or leg and then I was in a swamp and I was just terrified.”
By this time, everything was pitch black in the swamp. Fortunately, Marleau did have his trusty cell phone. Alone and afraid, that phone seemed to be his last hope to get rescued.
“I figured no one was going to find me, I had seven bullets but what is that going to do overnight if a pack of coyotes gets at me so I figured if I called the police they could track my phone right and that is exactly what they did,” he said.
Marleau says the operator kept him calm and sane while he sat on a rock in the swamp waiting for a rescue party to arrive.
“It was absolutely terrifying, I would have had a heart attack if I was not on the phone with the operator because they were calming me down and telling me to breathe, I was nearly hyperventilating but they were very good,” he said.
Ironically, it was not the police initially, but his uncle Shane Deveaux, who has vast military and survival training, that found Marleau in the swamp.
Marleau says the police did not want to go into the swamp at night because they were fearful someone else would get lost.
But Marleau’s uncle took the risk and at around 9:45 p.m.
The Pickering native heard voices about 400 yards away and he began screaming for help.
He was saved.
“He wasn’t leaving the bush without finding me,” Marleau said about his uncle.
Marleau was then taken to a police cruiser and then back to his uncle's home where he was able to have a comfortable and thankful sleep.
Marleau says he definitely has learned his lesson about how important preparation is before heading out on a hunting expedition.
“You need ropes, tarps, something to make heat, matches or something. Food, of course, I had no food, no drink, nothing,” said Marleau.
