Tragedy or comedy?
Don’t miss the key safety tips at the end.
Good ending but I wouldn’t want to be that guy.
I wonder why they did not pull over altogether unless she was capsized already and he lost sight of her. If he lost sight of her on the river, the guy did the best he could to get on land asap to get some real help to search the river. While it may sound selfish b/c at the end the girl said “i can’t believe he left me out here”, in any risk situation, you don’t want to make it worse and having two person now capsized or further lost in the complete darkness.
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Saw that on a feed this morning. I lean towards a comedy for all except for the “gentleman” involved. Although from the article he did what he said he would do.
Bad planning to be out there in the dark.
Nobody gets lost on a river.
They were at 44th Ave suggesting the town of “Paw Paw” was close by.
Never leave your partner.
This guy totally panicked and screwed up.
Got to wonder about alcohol.
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Yup. 
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Not really. This is Western Michigan where Avenues go North/South & Streets go East/West even if they are dirt/gravel roads. I will say that Streetview has driven down these roads & they are paved. A quick look at the map suggests that they were maybe 2 1/2 miles or more from a lake & maybe another mile from beautiful downtown PawPaw.
Given the happy ending I just thought it was a funny story, starting with “report of shirtless man knocking on doors” to the LEO recommending a flashlight but forgetting to tell you to drop it in the ziplock with your phone…and maybe recommending to bring a compass versus wandering deer trails.
Depending on how you define “lost” I’ve been lost on the Paw Paw near dark twice. On one unfamiliar section I took a wrong turn at an intersection and ended up having to backtrack quite a ways in diminishing light when I figured it out Another time I grossly underestimated the time/distance of a trip because the Paw Paw is so twisty and the daylight was fading when we finally got to the takeout about 3-4 hours later than expected. 100% my fault both times.
Every flashlight I’ve had for the past twenty years or more has been waterproof.
Compass? Who knows how to use one anymore? The idiots in the story didn’t seem to be aware that it gets dark later in the day.
I can attest to the twisty nature of the river and getting around blow down or low water levels in spots could add to the estimated time. Not exactly wilderness though. Roads and bridges were plentiful on the section we paddled (with TomL). My goals is always to not make the news.
A compass would be kinda useless on a river, especially if you didn’t have (or know how to use) a map. Nothing said about type of kayak or PFD involved. Darwin almost scored another one!