An 82-year-old Winnipeg man who got lost more than 100 kilometres from home and drove his car into a ditch survived a frigid night alone in rural Manitoba by walking through the snow looking for help.

Luckily, help found him.

Charlie McAulay left his Winnipeg home Monday afternoon. His family says he was picking up his car after getting it serviced and lost his way, driving north of the city on Highway 59. Police began looking for him Monday night.

At some point McAulay crashed his car into a wooded area off the side of the road near Traverse Bay, about an hour north of Winnipeg. He told his family that he left his car in the sub-zero conditions and walked along the highway for more than 10 kilometres, hoping to flag down a passing car.

It wasn’t until Tuesday morning that someone spotted him. Landon Navitka says the elderly man was walking down the middle of the highway when he came across him around 8:30 a.m. When Navitka took a closer look, he noticed that McAulay’s face was blue.

“I slowed down and asked him if he was okay,” Navitka told CTV Winnipeg. “He was in a very, very bad state when I found him.”

He drove McAulay to a nearby service station to warm him up and assess his condition. Once there, local firefighter Colin Roy bought McAulay a coffee and waited with him until police drove him back home to his family in Winnipeg.

Roy said he was happy to help.

“I’ve seen a lot of stuff out here like that being on emergency services, and this one is nice to have,” said Roy, the deputy fire chief for Victoria Beach, Man.

It’s still unclear exactly how McAulay ended up so far from home. His son Chuck McAulay said the entire story is “really incredible.”

“I said, ‘How did you get there?’ And he just said, ‘I drove.’ He said, ‘I was completely lost,’” Chuck McAulay said.

McAulay has since taken time to recover from the ordeal and slept more than 15 hours. He told his family he is still in pain but somehow did not suffer frostbite.

As for the man who came across the lost senior and offered him help, he says he was simply acting out of instinct.

“It isn’t a good feeling once you’re lost. It’s tough to get found, so I’m just glad I could help out. I would’ve done the same for anyone in any circumstance,” Navitka said.

With a report from CTV Winnipeg’s Beth Macdonell