N.W.T. hunter battled snow, hunger and a grizzly bear in 6 days lost on the land

Lanny Stewart has one of those harrowing northern survival tales that will be passed on for generations, and he says it's changed his life.

The 37-year-old hunter from Fort McPherson, N.W.T., got lost in the wilderness for six days earlier this month battling snow, hungerand a grizzly bear attack.

• Missing N.W.T. hunter lit fire to attract attention of helicopter searchers

Stewart, who works for a local contractor, left the James Creek Camp near the N.W.T./Yukon border at 9:30 a.m. on Labour Day, for a day of caribou hunting on his ATV.

He planned to be home by supper time, but when the fog rolled in, Stewart got into some trouble.

"I noticed I was going in circles. So I kept coming back to the same spot," he said in a recent interview.

Then things got worse. When Stewart stopped his four-wheeler, he couldn't get it started again. Wanting to stay close to the machine, Stewart made a shelter for the night out of willows.

"When I woke up the next morning there was at least two inches of snow on the ground."

Grizzly attack

Stewart knew which direction the highway was, so he started walking. All he had on him was two sandwiches, two bottles of water, his gun and a knife.

He walked the whole day and as darkness fell around him, he leaned up against a tree. That's when he heard caribou hooves.

"I turned to my left and the caribou was not even a foot away from me. My gun wasn't working so I used my knife and stabbed him in the neck."

That's where his luck ended. Immediately after killing the caribou, Stewart says he was confronted with a grizzly bear.

"I climbed a tree that was there and he tried climbing up for me and I managed to hit him in the head three times with my knife and he crawled back down the tree," Stewart says.

"And he took my caribou."

Choppers circling

For three days straight Stewart says he walked, hearing helicopters in the distance.

"The whole time I was up there I was doing a lot of praying."

RCMP, the Civil Aviation Search and Rescue Association, local helicopter companies and dozens of community members were helping with the search for Stewart. They had found his ATV, but poor weather was hampering the search.

"On the fourth day they flew over me twice," he recalls.

"By the time I came out of my shelter they were already gone.

"I stayed in that shelter for three and a half days. I was just living on cranberries and snow."

On the sixth day, Stewart once again heard a chopper unbeknownst to him, RCMP had scaled back the search and the helicopter was on its last run of the day.

"I had to climb up a cliff," he says. "I had no feeling in my legs, so I couldn't walk, so I had to climb up that cliff with just using my arms and my gun and knife."

Finding some dry grass, he lit a fire on the top of the cliff and it "took off."

"That's how the chopper seen me."

• VIDEO | N.W.T. hunter Lanny Stewart, missing since Monday, found safe

'I'm changing my life'

"It was kinda hard out there," Stewart says.

"Being out there for those six days sure made me do a lot of thinking about my life, a lot of praying. I found God while I was out there. Now I'm changing my life around for the better."

He says he's filed the paperwork to enter a treatment program in the next couple of weeks.

And, as many who have been stuck on the land before him have advised, Stewart istelling others to check their equipment, bring a flashlight and flare gun, as well as extra matches.

"I'd just like to say thank you to all the people that were out there searching, and to the pilots that were out there helping, and to the people that found me," Stewart says.

"And not giving up on me, and all the people that prayed for me."

• 'I was in trouble': Beer can and bears save mushroom picker from hungry wolf
• 'I followed the sun': Mushroom picker recounts 5 days lost in Yukon bush
• Nunavut hunter falls through ice, makes pants out of a fox to stay warm