Lukas McClish, 34, was rescued Thursday evening after wandering Big Basin Redwoods State Park for 10 days. MUST CREDIT: SLV Steve
Lukas McClish, 34, was rescued Thursday evening after wandering Big Basin Redwoods State Park for 10 days. MUST CREDIT: SLV Steve
For days, Lukas McClish roamed the woods in Santa Cruz mountains without food or supplies. What helped him survive: drinking lots of water out of his hiking boots.
The 34-year-old resident of Boulder Creek, California, had left home on the morning of June 11, authorities said, for what he thought would be a short hike.
“I didn’t bring anything because I thought I was doing a three-hour hike to go to work,” McClish told KSBW News.
But he got lost, and those three hours turned into 10 days. His family reported him missing five days in, prompting a hunt.
Authorities used drones to locate him in a thick forest on Thursday after several witnesses reported hearing his pleas for help, the San Mateo County Fire Department said in a statement. Multiple agencies were involved in the rescue effort near Big Basin Redwoods State Park, including the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, California State Parks rangers and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, it added.
The sheriff’s office said McClish had no major injuries. Photos from the scene showed a bedraggled McClish hugging his loved ones in relief.
McClish told local media outlets that he made sure to keep drinking water.
“So I kind of just hiked each day. I’d go up a canyon, down a canyon to the next waterfall and sit down by the waterfall and drink water out of my boot,” McClish told KSBW News, adding that he also foraged wild berries. After several days, however, he felt the need “for food or some kind of sustenance”, McClish said in an interview with ABC7.
What he craved most was a burrito and a taco bowl, McClish said in a televised interview with KSBW.
“That’s what I thought about every day after the first five days, when I started to kind of realise that I might be in over my head,” he added with a smile.
Lukas McClish, 34, was rescued Thursday evening after wandering Big Basin Redwoods State Park for 10 days. MUST CREDIT: SLV Steve
Last year, a woman lost in the Australian wilderness survived five days on a bottle of wine, and a sailor from Dominica got through 24 days at sea relying on little more than a bottle of ketchup.
Experts say that getting lost without food or supplies can quickly turn into a question of survival, and that seeking help should be the first priority.
“Use any available resources to signal for rescue, significantly increasing your chances of making it through. Beyond help seeking and making your location known, the priorities become shelter, water and food (not always in that order),” Darren Edwards, founder of Trail Hiking Australia, who has volunteered for bush search and rescue operations, said in an email.
The rule of threes, he said, offers a useful framework to prioritise survival actions.
“It outlines estimated time frames for how long a human can endure without essential elements: 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter in harsh conditions, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food (with water and shelter),” he wrote.
Address the most immediate problem first, he advised: In warm weather, prioritise finding water, and if you are cold, wet and at risk of hypothermia, focus on sheltering first.
“I also like to add positive mental attitude and first aid to these priorities. First aid will not always be required, but when you or a member of your group are injured, attending to this should be your first priority,” Edwards said.
Preparation before the hike, for beginners or seasoned hikers, is essential, authorities say. Leave details about your trip with friends or family: where you will be hiking, your contact information, when you plan to arrive and return, and who is coming with you, the National Park Service says, in case you need to be rescued. And consider bringing a personal locator beacon that can send a distress signal, along with a fully charged cellphone.
The American Hiking Society suggests carrying a map and compass (and learning how to use them), even for short day hikes in familiar areas, as well as an emergency whistle.
It also advises not wandering too far from the location you think rescuers might be searching.
For McClish, another hike is not in the cards anytime soon.
“I did enough hiking for probably the whole rest of the year,” he told ABC7.
