Recently, 34-year-old Lukas McClish was found alive after being lost for 10 days in the rugged Santa Cruz mountains of California.
McClish, an experienced hiker from Boulder Creek, set out on June 11th for a short 3-hour hike but quickly became disoriented and lost his way.
At the time, McClish had only a pair of pants, hiking shoes, a hat, and a small multi-tool. He was alone and struggling to survive in the dense, mountainous terrain.
As the day went by without any sign of him, his family and local authorities launched a large search and rescue operation, searching the area for any trace of the missing hiker.
Speaking to reporters after his rescue, McClish recounted his harrowing ordeal. "I left with just the bare essentials, not even a shirt. I had no food, no water supply - just what I could find in the wilderness."
In that case, McClish quickly realized he would need to ration whatever resources he could scrounge up to survive.
One of the ways McClish survived for 10 days was by drinking water from his own boot.
He would search up and down the canyons, looking for any water sources he could find.
Whenever he came across a waterfall or stream, he would take off his boot and fill it with water. Then he would drink as much as he could from the boot. By doing this, he was able to get around a gallon of water per day.
In addition to the water from his boot, McClish supplemented his diet by eating wild berries and other edible plants he could find in the forest.
According to his claims, at night, McClish would curl up on wet leaves.
He kept yelling and shouting, hoping someone would hear him and come rescue him. He would scream 'Help!' again and again.
Sometimes he would even yell that he wanted a burrito and taco bowl. He did anything he could to try and get someone to find him.
Many of the landmarks he knew were destroyed by the fires. This made it almost impossible for him to figure out where he was or how to find his way back.
The wildfires made his already dangerous situation even more difficult.
After nearly a week and a half with no sign of McClish, search teams finally located him on Thursday afternoon in the Big Basin State Park.
Even though McClish was weak and thirsty, he was not hurt badly. He was flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital. There, doctors could check him over and provide him with any treatment he needed.
A spokesperson for the Cal Fire San Mateo-Santa Cruz department has been surprised, saying, "It's a miracle he survived out there for that long, in those conditions."
"The fact that he was able to improvise and ration whatever resources he could find is a true testament to his resourcefulness and determination."
