Tip: Coming to Canada from Los Angeles - dress warmer

[BJ_M]

Lovestruck Yank walks to Manitoba, gets frostbite

U.S. man frostbitten on quest for romance
Walked to Canada in bid to meet sweetheart

WINNIPEG—An American man is recovering from severe frostbite in a Manitoba hospital after trying to walk from North Dakota to Winnipeg in an attempt to meet his Internet sweetheart.

"I was a desperate man who found a desperate way to try and be with the woman I love," Charles Gonsoulin, 41, said from his hospital bed in Morris, Man.

"I wasn't aware of what the weather conditions would be," said the Los Angeles resident. "It was a lot worse than I thought."

The self-employed mechanic lost his way after setting out from Pembina, N.D., last Saturday with plans to sneak across the Canadian border to Winnipeg. A 1984 conviction for robbery meant Gonsoulin couldn't legally enter the country. He planned to then board a bus to Quebec and meet the woman he says gave him the will to live two years ago after they met in a chat room for people suffering from depression.

Before setting out from Pembina, he bought boots, toques, a parka, two sets of gloves, thermal socks, a compass, trail mix and water.

But his supplies soon ran out. He began eating snow but found it only made him more thirsty and hungry. His progress was slow because he didn't realize how deep the snow would be.

Although temperatures have hovered just slightly below normal during the past week, police say Gonsoulin didn't stand a chance.

On Wednesday morning, Gonsoulin was rescued by an alert RCMP officer who followed a trail of footprints on a golf course just outside Emerson, Man.

"When I found him, he was babbling and incoherent," said Cpl. Don McKenna of the Emerson RCMP. "His hands were black and frozen solid. He didn't know who he was or where he was."

Gonsoulin had covered only about seven kilometres in nearly 100 hours.

Gonsoulin may lose some fingers. But he would have lost a lot more if a man reporting a traffic accident Wednesday hadn't told McKenna he thought he spotted someone wandering around the Emerson golf course as he drove to the RCMP detachment.

McKenna drove just outside the town for a look, and spotted footprints in some fresh snow.

The officer knew something was amiss when he followed the trail to a pair of gloves, then one duffel bag, then another.

"I went down a little embankment and there he was at the bottom," said McKenna.

McKenna called an ambulance, and Gonsoulin was rushed to hospital where he is expected to remain for several days.

His cyberspace romance will have to wait. Gonsoulin will likely be deported back into the United States by Canadian justice officials who have charged him with entering the country illegally.

"My past is coming back to haunt me," said Gonsoulin, who is expected to appear in Emerson court on Tuesday.

CANADIAN PRESS

[Grimey]

Bloody Yanks

[canadateck]

Of all the Places he chose WINNIPEG in the winter. Next time he should try going through Vancouver.

[Grimey]

Of all the Places he chose WINNIPEG in the winter. Next time he should try going through Vancouver.

no shit.......it's about 15 degrees and sunny here right now

[BJ_M]

kinda hard to walk to vancouver though - directly

[offline]

'Aint love grand

[BJ_M]

'Aint love grand

think of it this way -- he is lucky all he lost is some fingers and toes .. if they did get together and then broke up - he could have lost something else which seems to be a trend lately ..