What started as a summer tubing trip down Michigan’s Muskegon River turned into something resembling an episode of “Man vs. Wild” after two women and a 9-year-old boy became stranded in the wilderness for three days, surviving on whatever they could find until rescuers finally reached them.
Jazman Hock, her cousin Sarah Vida and Vida’s 9-year-old son, Kayden Kovalcik, were found alive on Aug. 8 after an extensive search involving Michigan State Police, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, emergency responders and volunteers.
Their trouble reportedly began when the group entered the Muskegon River using inflatable tubes designed for swimming pools rather than rough river conditions.
That decision became considerably more expensive than whatever proper river tubes would have cost.
The group encountered repeated log jams while traveling downstream. Eventually, their inflatable equipment couldn’t take any more punishment.
“The last one that we ran into just popped everything,” Hock explained.
With their tubes destroyed, the family attempted to continue on foot. But dense Michigan wilderness isn’t exactly equipped with convenient exit signs. Hock said they eventually realized they were walking in circles.
They were stranded for three days.
The family had brought protein bars and water, but the two women reportedly gave the available food to Kayden. According to Hock’s mother, the women resorted to eating flowers, tree bark and ants while waiting for rescue.
Kayden later told rescuers they had been eating bark and flowers, while Hock said they drank water from the river.
Video captured the dramatic moment rescuers finally approached the group through thick vegetation.
“Make some noise… Yell!” one rescuer called as the search team moved toward them.
“We got lost on the river,” Kayden explained after they were found.
The physical condition of the survivors demonstrated just how brutal their ordeal had become. The women and child were reportedly covered with cuts, insect bites, mud and scratches. One woman told rescuers she was forcing herself to continue walking despite her injuries.
Members of the rescue team even removed their own shirts to help protect the survivors from insects attacking their exposed wounds. Medical gloves were placed over some of their hands and feet.
“There was not even an inch of their exposed skin that was not just covered in cuts and bug bites and mud and scrapes where they were just physically not able to go any further,” rescuer Wright said.
According to the Associated Press, the group was eventually located about seven miles from where they had originally entered the river.
Finding them required some old-fashioned tracking. Searchers reportedly followed a discarded tube, footprints, broken branches and bent vegetation through the wilderness until they finally reached the family.
“We are relieved to report that Jazman Hock, Sarah Vida, and Kayden Kovalcik have been located alive and safe. This is the outcome everyone involved had hoped for,” Michigan State Police said.
The agency also thanked the numerous law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency personnel, search teams and volunteers who spent countless hours looking for the missing family.
It’s a remarkable survival story with an equally obvious lesson.
Rivers are not swimming pools, and equipment designed to float around the backyard isn’t necessarily designed to survive logs, currents and miles of wilderness. What looked like a relaxing tubing adventure became three days of hunger, injuries and uncertainty.
Thankfully, this story ended with rescuers saying “good job” instead of investigators explaining what went wrong.
And after three days of eating ants and tree bark, nobody in this family will ever complain about what’s for dinner again.
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