Hello all,

Been traveling up to the BWCA/Quetico since 1968-so I'm dated. My wife is concerned that if I have an emergency while in the Quetico (I'm going there this autumn), how is the best method to extract me and most importantly will travelers insurance cover an evacuation. I will have an InReach and Satellite phone however am most interested in your thoughts on companies that cover such an event.

Thanks in advance.

I believe and have not heard of actual incidents to the contrary that in US and CA, there is no cost for the evacuation to where you can be transferred to an ambulance if necessary. Whether your insurance will cover the ambulance is a different question.

Now, I believe in at CO and NH, or parts of those states, they say they will charge you, or will if it's your negligence. Not clear if they have charged many or collected any expenses. IIRC they both have programs where you can buy a card that will cover it - a membership.

Atikokan Aero Service sent us a bill for rescue pickup on Saganaga Lake, with a stop at Cache Bay Ranger Station. and Seagull Outfitters as final destination. Less the $300 for 3 guys in 2001. We thought it was a great deal! And we never thought to negotiate a deal (or worry about insurance) at the time...

Most important is that they get you.

With your inReach you can purchase search and rescue insurance from Garmin for about $40 for a year. Here’s a link to the website, where you can read about what it covers, see all the legalese terms and conditions, etc. I don’t personally have experience with it but am considering it for my own trip to Canada this year.
Garmin Search and Rescue Insurance

Check with AAA Auto Club (or possibly your auto insurance carrier) about travel insurance - includes evacuation coverage, but most importantly, emergency medical coverage on foreign soil.

Thank you all very much for the information. I will check these leads soon.

Cheers

bobbernumber3: "Atikokan Aero Service sent us a bill for rescue pickup on Saganaga Lake, with a stop at Cache Bay Ranger Station. and Seagull Outfitters as final destination. Less the $300 for 3 guys in 2001. We thought it was a great deal! And we never thought to negotiate a deal (or worry about insurance) at the time...


Most important is that they get you.
"

Ohy but that is a bargain

Mocha: "

bobbernumber3: "Atikokan Aero Service sent us a bill for rescue pickup on Saganaga Lake, with a stop at Cache Bay Ranger Station. and Seagull Outfitters as final destination. Less the $300 for 3 guys in 2001. We thought it was a great deal! And we never thought to negotiate a deal (or worry about insurance) at the time...



Most important is that they get you.
"

Ohy but that is a bargain"

We all thought so! And so much better than the alternative.

We were part of an evac on kawnipi 10 years ago.

We didn’t have a testing satellite device only a Spot SOS device.

So once we hit button for emergency evacuation we didn’t know if plane was coming until it came 4-5 hours later.

would have been much better for those at home if we had a device that could text (we do now).
Our loved ones didn’t know what had happened or to whom until 5-6 hours after the initial SOS
(We found someone with a compound fracture so it wasn’t our group. We had 3-4 more days left before we came back to the real world)

I don’t recall what it cost the person to be picked up. Could probably find out though.

All reports of evacs in the Q or BWCA I've read is no cost to the evacuee.

We had a group of 4 up at Opasquia Provincial Park in far NW Ontario a couple of years ago. A bud encountered a heart issue. I had an INREACH and texted Big Hook Wilderness Camps. They made a call and a plane came to us in 25 minutes. He was flown to Sandy Lake Indian Reservation for emergency treatment. Then was flown to Sioux Lookout hospital for further treatment.

My bud had travel insurance that paid almost all of the flight and hospital bills. He’s a lucky guy. Happy ending.

Make sure you have the correct emergency phone numbers. Texting to and from a satellite phone often works better than phone calls. Depending on weather conditions, cloud cover, etc., you may have trouble getting a phone call through. Sat phones require clear skies overhead, meaning if you are stuck in the woods, your sat phone might not work. Test phoning and texting your spouse from the sat phone before you go and when you first get there. Make a plan if your sat phone fails for some reason, at what point should your spouse declare an emergency if she doesn't hear from you.
If you do need to get air lifted out there are some considerations, how far are you from the water? Is the nearest water accessible by float plane or is it a swamp or a tiny lake too small to land a plane on. It might be too windy for the plane to fly.
We were airlifted out a couple of years ago. It was a horrible accident that needed immediate surgical attention but we waiting for four hours in the dirt before a plane could get there and then it took a long time to get the patient to the plane.
The park rangers said that since they had rented an airplane for another emergency earlier in the day there would be no charge for us. We had to leave everything in the woods, all we took was the filthy clothes on our backs.
The bad news was that the only way to get back to retrieve our canoe and equipment was to rent a plane which cost $1,000. By the way, there was no way we could get anyone, airplane or ambulance to cross the border. We had to have family drive to the hospital in Canada to bring the patient back and the plane that I paid to bring me and the equipment out would only take me as far as the border.