After being stranded on a cliffside for two nights, Boomer the dog has been reunited with his owner — who has left northwestern Ontario with a newfound appreciation of Thunder Bay, Ont.’s climbing community.
James Tyree, a hunter from Elizabethton, Tenn., has been coming to Canada for the last 18 years to hunt bears at the end of the summer. Last week, he ended up deep in the bush near Fallingsnow Lake Conservation Reserve.
After a long day of tracking last Tuesday, Boomer — an eight-and-a-half-year-old Treeing Walker Coonhound — fell off a ledge.
“I was afraid my dog was going to starve to death on the cliff,” Tyree said. “I couldn’t get to him. I couldn’t do anything about it.”
Tyree eventually got in touch with Aric Fishman, the owner of Outdoor Skills and Thrills, a rock and ice climbing guiding company in Thunder Bay. After spending some time strategizing and gathering the right gear, Fishman — along with climbers Jared Miller and Jonathan Kettle — made the 1.5-hour hike into the woods where Boomer fell.
“Those guys jumped into action,” Tyree said. “They couldn’t have done a better job of being more professional. Good guys would not let me pay them a dime. They did it all for free, would not accept payment whatsoever.”
“That’s just a mark of true gentlemen, that they just were willing to help out just because a man was in need.”
It was no easy feat. While Fishman began preparing for the rescue on Wednesday, by the time he would’ve made it to Boomer, it would have been too dark outside to navigate the terrain. So, the men set out at first light on Thursday.
“It’s a remote area. There’s no trail system. It’s straight up northwest Ontario bush, which is challenging to go through,” Fishman said.
They found Boomer cuddled up to a tree, with a sheer drop just below him. He’d dug himself into the soil, almost forming a nest to keep himself steady, Fishman explained.
Besides being cold and hungry, Boomer was safe. He quickly took a liking to Fishman, who fed him chicken jerky as he strapped a harness onto him before the men worked together to hoist him up.
“Miraculously, he didn’t have any significant injuries,” Fishman said.
There’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to keeping pets safe near heights; it all depends on the animal and how familiar it is with the environment, Fishman said.
For example, his own dog, Summit, has grown up hiking on cliffsides.
“She’s like a mountain goat — she’s extremely confident in that terrain,” he said. “I think for a dog like that, having a leash would actually maybe be dangerous because it could get stuck on something or I can get pulled.”
Something that helped with Boomer’s rescue was that he had a bell attached to his collar, so the climbers could hear where he was. He also had a GPS tracker, which reassured Tyree he was still alive.
“That could be a cool thing to get for people who are out in the wilderness often with their dogs,” Fishman said.
While every situation is different, Fishman said it’s important for people to stay alert, especially near cliffs, “because it’s always possible that your dog could see a squirrel or something and go chase after it.”
As for Tyree, he’s back on the road with Boomer, who he describes as the best of his 13 hunting dogs, and they’re on their way home.
“A lot of people in places — if you’re not a local — won’t take that type of interest and care in helping you out,” Tyree said as he reflected on Boomer’s big scare.
“It really meant a lot for them to go ‘we don’t care where he comes from, we don’t care about politics, we are going to help this guy and get this dog back.'”
