Surely a responsible family could have recreated the adventure with a VR headset and avoided the whole situation?

Mean while in the real world

One winter I was in a group that messed up (camped at Lock Avon and the tents got completely burried). We decided to walk out of the Cairngorms to the West when we had planned to walk out to the East. We walked out with a skier and phoned the mountain rescue from Derry Lodge to report that a group he was meant to be meeting hadn’t turned up.

We fully expected to walk out under our own steam. We were well clothed but a bit short of food. However we were told by the mountain rescue to wait in a bothy and they came and got us in a snow cat

All quite embarasing. It was tempting just to walk out. But i could see there point of view. It wasn’t about our egos andit was about the team keeping it simple for them. They were coming up to Derry Lodge anyway so why have us wandering potentialy creating more problems

I think this story is similar. A problem is prevented form happening by simple action

I’ve done a bit of bog tussock leaping in my time and some of the bog holes looked like they could swallow me and the bike, and yet in a dry summer the same bog can be crossed no problem.

Full marks to that father and everyone involved in a sensible solution.

No way would I want to take kids over unknown bogs without being sure of safe ground. 3 miles can easily take a couple of hours solo even for a recce.

Good news! The canoe is back, having been spotted, recovered by police, and returned to Stirling by kindness of strangers…

Mint!

Depending on what’s around and if I’d got dry clothes in the car, I’d probably swim for it where the loch narrows just to the east (<20meters) and get back to the car, wait a few days then claim on the life insurance when the canoe turns up.
[/quote]FWIW, I visited the area shortly after this incident and I reckon you could have waded across at that point 🙂

There’s actually a wee island that cuts the distance in two but it’s hidden by the trees on Google Earth. It’s more obvious on Bing Maps

https://binged.it/2yUFRSn

Don’t forget though Col, there were kids involved as well. Maybe not a good idea to let/make/advise/coerse kids to go plodging over there.

The canoe was discovered on a beach, upright, water levels having dropped over a metre since the day it was lost.
Bear in mind a couple of Jon’s kids are only a metre in height…

He could have walked across with them on his shoulders.

Or tied them together with their PFDs, thrown a rope over and pulled them across 🙂

FWIW it was a lovely, calm day when I was there. I’m not suggesting someone should really attempt it on poor weather.

FWIW it was a lovely, calm day when I was there.

Hope you logged it for the records then.