Boson Man Lost For Seven Days in East Blue Hills Reservation - Killed Squirells For Food - Animal Rights Activists Outraged

 

A Boson man has a harrowing story to tell after getting lost for seven days out on the land near Big Blue earlier this month.

Robert 'Bob' Johansen left on foot to go deer hunting on a clear weekend afternoon, and had already seen several deer, when the weather quickly turned foggy. He got disoriented and lost.

He was following what he thought was the sound of shots being fired at a nearby family camp, but in fact was the echo of the shots in the East Blue Hills, so he headed in the wrong direction.

"I had with me a hand crossbow, darts, no food, and a knife, and I also had a lighter. But I had dropped it so I had no fire starter to make fire with," he told this reporter. "Well, I had some snacks," he admitted.  "A Snickers candy bar and Hostess Ding-dongs. But, I ate them before I really knew I was lost."

He had only brought a can of Pepsi to drink with him on the hunt.

After two days on the land, he said he fell to his knees from hunger, exhaustion and thirst. Where he fell there was a patch of edible mountain sorrel and he heard dripping. 

"I climbed uphill to try and find something to give me little bit of energy and found some edible plants and saw a little creek that I drank from."

When it started to get dark the fog rolled in from the Neponset River, he fell backwards, close to the edge of a steep hill. 

Johansen said his crossbow was hanging off the edge, and he has no idea how he didn't fall. His foot was stuck on a rock — what he says saved him — and he was able to pull himself away from the edge. 

"When it became dark, I tried to find a suitable shelter knowing I had seen three bears earlier in the day," he said.

"So I was quite worried about the biggest one that might come and attack me."

He said he drifted in and out of sleep. 

"When I heard a movement nearby, all I thought of was the huge bear I had seen. But luckily it was just a fox," Johansen said.

"I survived the night."

Meanwhile, search and rescue teams were out looking for Joamie, who had headed to the top of a mountain so he might be seen.

He could hear the State Police Hercules plane passing overheard. At first he was elated thinking he was safe, but it passed overhead. He counted that the plane flew over him six times. 

At one point, Johanson said he gave up and asked God to end his suffering, then passed out from exhaustion.

When he woke up, he laughed at himself and told God he'd changed his mind, he'd really like to be rescued.

Eventually State Police spotters in a Twin Otter spotted him. But Lucy Young, Johanson maternal aunt, said the plane couldn't land on Big Blue.

"So they sent a helicopter to pick him up and found him barely standing from walking too long. He had walked very far around and around Big Blue," she said.

Searchers found him curled up with bad blisters on his feet. Young says their family broke into song when they heard he was OK.

Johanson, an hunter who was familiar to game wardens and State Police was airlifted to Boson City Hospital for treatment.

He still had his cross bow with him and several uncooked squirrels in a bag with him in the hospital — which he said was a first — and said the nurses and security staff were slightly startled. 

Johanson returned to his families camper, with his crossbows, in good spirits earlier this week.  He ate the squirrels in the hospital after instructing the kitchen staff on how to properly skin and cook the animals.  

(CNN)It is elk mating season and finding a partner could get dangerous.

Yellowstone National Park warned visitors Friday that the season, called the elk rut, has begun and aggression could be turned toward humans passing by.

The rut stretches from early September to mid-October, when bull elk "bugle" or call out to "announce their availability" to females and challenge competing males, the National Park Service said. Sometimes the bulls battle for females.

Yellowstone shared a video on Twitter Friday of two bulls wrestling with interlocking antlers.

People have been severely injured during bull elk battles, the NPS said. Visitors are warned to keep at least 25 feet away from elk, which can run quickly and change directions abruptly, and to find shelter as quickly as possible if one charges.

Though dangerous to people, the loud fights are rarely injurious to elk. Keeping their antlers through the winter means that bull elks don't have to duke it out with their front hooves, which could lead to injuries.

Usually, the weaker elk of the two gives up and wanders off, the NPS said.