Fort Sask man found after night in forest

Nicole and Julian Wigg have been reunited after Julian got lost in a forest northwest of Edmonton Friday night.

Police have rescued a Fort Saskatchewan man after he went missing in the woods northwest of Edmonton.

Julian Wigg explained that he had become stranded near Chisholm after his vehicle became stuck on a trail.

After calling family members to try and organize a tow truck he left the vehicle and began walking through the forest.

“I got myself in a place where I was stuck and my phone died and then I thought ‘Well I guess I’m going to try and hoof it on out here.’

“I thought I heard a noise that sounded like the highway so I thought 'Well, I’ll head into the trees and see if I can make my way out' but ended up getting lost and couldn’t find the path again.”

Wigg then decided to camp out and wait for help to find him.

“I made a help sign for myself out of logs,” he laughed.

“I used my backpack for my feet. I used my toiletry bag for my head. Just did whatever I could to keep warm.”

Wigg’s wife, Nicole, called police and then drove to the area with her father to help search for her husband.

“Julian sent a text with the location of where the van was at so I just took my GPS and my dad’s four-by-four truck and we just went back-roading. We thought ‘Oh good, we found Julian.’ But there was no Julian. So, from there we got in touch with the RCMP again.”

Slave Lake RCMP, RCMP Police Dog Services, RCMP Air Services and Slave Lake Search and Rescue were called in to help search for Wigg.

“I heard a helicopter and started jumping around and I started yelling and it was actually the guys on the ground who heard me and told them to take a second pass.”

After being released from Slave Lake hospital Saturday, Wigg said he was looking forward to getting back home to his three kids.

With files from Amanda Anderson