Featured Image Credit: Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office / KSBW/SLV Steve
Topics: California, Nature, US News, Life
Joe Yates
Topics: California, Nature, US News, Life
A missing man has been found alive after being lost for 10 days in the mountains of Northern California, and he's now shared his shocking guide to survival.
When you hear of anyone going missing your natural reaction is to arrive at the worst possibility - so when Lukas McClish wasn't sighted for double figures, you assumed he could be gone forever.
But thanks to the Californian's survival instinct, he was found without any major injuries.
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Last Tuesday (11 June), the 34-year-old set off from his home in Boulder Creek and embarked on what was supposed to be a three-hour walk. But after losing his bearings, he did not arrive home until ten days later on Friday (21 June).
It wasn't until Father's Day, last Sunday (16 June), that Lukas was reported missing to the police after he didn't show up to a family gathering.
Speaking to KGO-TV, he said: "I left with just a pair of pants, and 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."
However, despite being stranded with the bare minimum hiking tools, and also a bare back, the avid hiker explained how he was never worried - even when a mountain lion started tracking him.
So, how on Earth does anyone, not named Bear Grylls, survive in the wilderness with no T-shirt for 10 days?
Lukas revealed that he is still alive because he foraged for food for 10 days, eating wild berries and sleeping on damp leaves, but most importantly he drank a gallon of water out of his boot each day, which he collected from creeks.
While speaking to the New York Times, he said: "Each day I go up a canyon, down a canyon, to the next waterfall, drank water out of my boot. I felt comfortable every time I was out there. I wasn't worried about it."
He explained how he became lost in the Santa Cruz Mountains after he stumbled upon a region that was decimated due to wildfires in 2020, named the CZU Lightning Complex fire, saying it 'looks completely different from all of the other terrain'.
Lukas, who works as a landscaper in woodlands that have been affected by wildfires, added during his interview with KGO-TV: "That's one thing I didn't take into consideration - when the fire comes through like that and decimates it, it turns into the desert and you're unable to find your bearings."
He was last seen in Boulder Creek, a small community on the Santa Cruz Mountains, and found in Big Basin Redwoods State Park following multiple reports from locals having heard someone screaming for help.