Misplaced within the Santa Cruz wilderness, Lukas McClish began shouting for assist, realizing he was pushing his physique to the restrict after greater than every week with virtually no meals or provides.
That technique seemingly saved his life.
A number of folks heard his cries for assist, directing rescue groups to a distant space of Huge Basin Redwoods State Park close to Foreman Creek. Utilizing a drone, first responders have been in a position to find the 34-year-old within the distant forest the place he’d been misplaced for 10 days.
McClish, an avid hiker, was rescued Thursday with out main accidents and reunited together with his household, in accordance with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Workplace. Pictures from the scene confirmed an emotional reunion as he emerged from the wilderness coated in filth and scratches, with wild hair and a beard.
He had departed on what he anticipated to be a brief hike 10 days prior, with out even a shirt on his again.
“I left with only a pair of my pants and my pair of mountain climbing footwear and a hat,” McClish advised ABC Information. “I had a flashlight and pair of folding scissors — like a Leatherman instrument — and that was about it.”
He stated he misplaced 30 kilos in these 10 days he was misplaced, consuming water from streams and waterfalls to remain alive. At one level, a mountain lion adopted him round, however he was by no means was too apprehensive about surviving till the top when he began dreaming about his subsequent meal, he advised KSBW-TV Information of Salinas.
“I didn’t deliver something as a result of I believed I used to be doing a three-hour hike,” he stated.
Whereas consuming water from nature was McClish’s solely possibility, officers warning in opposition to the observe.
“By no means drink water from a pure supply that you simply haven’t purified, even when the water seems clear,” a Nationwide Parks Service publish warns. “Water in a stream, river or lake could look clear, however it will possibly nonetheless be full of micro organism, viruses, and parasites that can lead to waterborne illnesses.”
McClish’s household had filed a lacking particular person’s report when he didn’t return house after a number of days, prompting the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Workplace to flow into a bulletin calling him a “lacking particular person in danger.”
“This actually was a group effort with the perfect end result we might have hoped for,” the Sheriff’s Workplace stated in a press release.
