When Christopher Banks left home late Saturday night, his plan was to drop in on his daughter for her 16th birthday.
"I was just going to go up to Woodcock (Lake Recreation Area), surprise my daughter in the morning, spend a few hours with her and come home. That was it. I planned on being back to work Monday," said Banks.
But those plans went awry in a big way.
Banks became the subject of a large search effort after he failed to arrive at his destination.
He was picked up in good health Thursday afternoon by search-and-rescue teams near Finger-Tatuk Provincial Park.
After heading too far down the Bobtail Forest Service Road on Saturday night, Banks was attempting to turn his vehicle around when a tire became stuck in a rut.
"I spent the night trying to get the car out, couldn't, decided to try and hike it out," Banks said.
"But I didn't have water or anything, got confused and went the wrong way."
Speaking to media while awaiting a ride home at the Prince George RCMP detachment about an hour after his rescue, Banks described a 15-kilometre walk that took him to the door - left ajar - of a rancher's cabin.
"They had a little log (book) that they come out every once in a while and check the cattle, so I knew they'd be out eventually," he said.
When the cabin's owners showed up on Thursday, they knew who they were looking at and radioed out to let someone know that he'd been found. While on the way to another cabin for a meal, a searching helicopter passed overhead that they were able to flag down. Banks said the sight of people had him shaking. "I just said 'thank God you found me here.'"
The nearly four-day effort to locate Banks involved about 35 registered search and rescue volunteers from Quesnel, Prince George and Vanderhoof, Prince George Search and Rescue manager Dave Merritt said. There were also three helicopters, four fixed-wing aircraft, an RCMP plane, ATVs and other friends and family members out looking.
Outcomes like this is why people give their time to search and rescue, said Merritt.
"Week in, week out we're training. This is what we do it for. We want that closure we want families to be back together. I can't put a feeling on it. It's been great, it's been amazing."
It's also a little unusual, said RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Craig Douglass. Not only is it rare that a search would last as long as it did, but to have Banks recovered alive and in good health is even more uncommon.
"The more time goes by, the less optimistic we might be about a positive outcome. And for this positive outcome is amazing," Douglass said, praising the search and rescue volunteers for their efforts to cover such a large area.
"There's definitely a lot of things that were done right. And there were definitely some things that probably he'll think better of for next time," Douglass said.
Chief among those is not traveling alone, Banks said.
"If I hadn't been alone, maybe we could have got the car out. Have somebody else with you, no matter what," he said. Another key lesson: "Bring water, definitely bring water. Creek water doesn't taste good."
