Well, this happened with three guys and myself, but it involves two of my best friends Chris and Marco.
It's quite telling of who we are and our attitudes. We went camping very under-prepared. In fact we even brought two tarps, but left one in the car before heading into the wilderness because "one is enough." One is certainly not enough, especially when there's rain in the forecast. Chris and Marco even forgot to bring their own sleeping bags. And no, it wasn't our first ever time camping.
Anyway, fast forward to the very final day, when we were hoping to get the best campsite on the lake. We did get it, in fact, but just as it started raining (again), our tent collapsed. Entirely. Two of the four holes which secure the poles to stand the tent gave out. We frantically tried to stand poles up with role tied to nearby trees, but we were losing light and rain clouds were speeding that process up. At what must've been 4 or 5pm, we decided to pack our things and start the 13 kilometre hike back to the car.
About half of that hike was done without the need for flashlights. But once the sun officially set, it got dark. Like pitch black in a provincial forest type of dark. We had three working flashlights to divide amongst four people. One flashlight gave out partway through. We only had the occasional blue marker nailed to a tree to confirm we were going the right way. Seeing a marker every few hundred feet was a sigh of relief.
Finally, the sound of traffic. Up in the sky, there was a break in the trees. We could see stars and even light pollution. We were close. At that point, we remembered a wooden sign we had noticed at the start of our trip, that told us we were officially within the Algonquin Park. It'd be on our left once we find it. Once we did, it was euphoria. The sign was on our left, and there was a bridge just ahead leading to the parking lot. And the most beautiful and symbolic starry sky I've ever seen was above me. We checked the time on the car radio and it was midnight.
Simultaneously one of the most frightening and rewarding experiences I've ever had, and in large part due to our inability to properly prepare ourselves. I'm not the least bit surprised it happened alongside two of my best friends.