Richard Code with his father, Mel.
On the eve of Richard Code's weekend survival trip into the wild, his friends pleaded with him not to go.
Peter and Susanne Watt urged the reserved, yet gregarious 41-year-old to remember his last trip into the woods at Christmastime. The Scarborough man had lasted just a few days with wood too wet to burn and not much for food and shelter. At the time, he said he was lucky he didn't die of hypothermia.
But Mr. Code arose at 4 a.m. last Thursday morning and set out for the bush near Burk's Falls, outside Huntsville, Ont.
He left his landlord and family friend, Barbara Ellis, a note instructing her to call police if he wasn't back by Sunday night.
When he didn't come back, she made the call and police began their search.
By Wednesday morning, Ontario Province Police helicopters made the discovery of a body. Toronto Police confirmed the body was that of Mr. Code who had set up camp in an area just off Highway 518, northeast of Huntsville.
He had hitchhiked to his camp, something he'd done before to get to his destination, said his older brother, Stephen Code, an optometrist in Kitchener, Ont., where they had grown up. Their father, Mel Code of Kitchener, is on a Caribbean cruise right now and is on his way back home to bury his son.
Though an autopsy is scheduled for Thursday, the elder sibling was told by the OPP that his brother died of hypothermia. "There was an interest in [watching] Survivorman and he also did a fair bit of reading about [survival]tales," the brother said, referring to the popular show featuring wilderness survival expert Les Stroud.
Mr. Code had been watching Survivorman since it began to air and occasionally copied some of the survival manoeuvres he saw on the show.
Today, the outdoorsman is being mourned by his long-time friends, the Watts, whose children called him "Mr. Richard."
Mr. Watt said he and Mr. Code were opposites when the met in high school. But the bond they forged more than 20 years ago was unbreakable.
"We were almost like brothers," Mr. Watt said from his home in Etobicoke, Ont. "I can't even eat. [Tuesday night]I couldn't even sleep because I was hoping …"
His warm-natured friend liked a good challenge and was supposed to visit the Watt home Wednesday night to fix the family computer.
He was musically inclined - he played guitar and had more than eight years of Royal Conservatory of Music piano training, Mr. Watt said.
He was also deeply religious and attended the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship church regularly, often in the company of the Watts.
But Mr. Code was also intense and liked to be alone, his brother said.
Temperatures never dipped lower than -12 over the weekend, but survival experts say even the most well trained survivalists can get hypothermia if they get wet.
Mr. Code was usually well stocked for his adventures and this excursion seemed to be no exception, said his friend, who had joined on some camping trips before.
"He'd have his emergency metal blanket, he'd have his special utility knife set - it's a $100 fancy knife. And he would go with an axe," Mr. Watt said. "He would go with stuff to light a fire, magnesium stick, basic stuff you'd need to get a fire going, to get a camp going. Some fishing stuff."
But he didn't bring a phone, something the Watts urged him to do.
"He said 'That would be a good idea' but he wasn't going to get one," Mr. Watt recalled.
Being completely alone in the wilderness was just part of the adventure, he had told them.
"That's just the way it is,'" he said. " The challenge was man versus nature."