A California hiker who went into the forest with only the bare minimum for a walk of a few hours reportedly survived in the forest for 10 days by drinking water he carried in his boots, after losing his bearings .
“I left with just pants, my pair of hiking shoes and a hat. I had a flashlight and a pair of folding scissors, like a Leatherman tool. And that was about it,” Lukas McClish, 34, told ABC 7 on Friday.
Last Thursday, the Boulder Creek, California, resident was reportedly located after 10 long days in the forest, despite having gone on a short hike in the Santa Cruz Mountains that was only supposed to last three hours on Tuesday of the previous week.
Except that after a few hours, the thirty-year-old would have lost his way, because according to him, certain landmarks would have been destroyed by the recent forest fires in northern California, he told the American media.
The problem is that his disappearance was not reported until six days later, when he did not show up for his family Father’s Day dinner the following Sunday, according to ABC7.
To survive all this time, the hiker would have made sure to drink at least a gallon of water per day drawn from natural waterfalls, using his boot as a container, as well as eating wild berries.
Day and night, the 34-year-old man called for help until he lost his voice.
““Help me, help me. I am here. Is there anyone?” “I just wanted a burrito and a taco bowl, that’s what I thought about every day after the first five days, when I kind of started to realize that maybe I was in over my head,” she said. he confided to KSBW, according to the “New York Post”.
His cries were finally heard the following Thursday, allowing the authorities to direct their search area.
“There were several reports that witnesses heard someone screaming for help, but the location of that person was difficult to establish,” Cal Fire San Mateo – Santa Cruz said in a post on the social networks.
The thirty-year-old knew he was out of the woods when he noticed the footprints and dog paw prints of the teams searching for him. Images of the reunion with his family were also shared on the web, where we can see the dirty and disheveled man hugging his mother.
“It was just really humbling and overall a great experience. (…) I think I’ve done enough hiking for probably the rest of the year,” he laughed to ABC 7, surrounded by his family.
