Hiker found alive after 10 days lost in California mountains shares his guide to survival

A half-naked hiker survived 10 days stranded in the mountains of northern California before he was found alive this week. Lukas McClish, 34, of Boulder Creek, California , embarked on a three-hour journey through the Big Basin Redwoods State Park after hearing of a granite outcropping nearby on June 11.

He brought only a few supplies and did not disclose his destination to anyone.

He said: "I left with a pair of pants, and my hiking shoes and a hat. I had a flashlight and a air of folding scissors, like a Leatherman tool - and that was about it."

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McClish foraged for food for 10 days and slept on damp leaves. He ate wild berries and drank water from the creek. McClish, a skilled hiker who works as a landscaper in wildfire-ravaged woodlands, expressed shock at becoming lost.

McClish, a skilled hiker who works as a landscaper in wildfire-ravaged woodlands, said he was shocked he got lost. He added that the region he was hiking in "looks completely different from all of the other terrain" because it was destroyed in the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire.

"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." There were no longer the usual direction indicators, such hiking tracks or deer trails.

However, McClish first saw his situation as an opportunity to hone his survival skills. "I go out for a night or two is not out of the norm for me because I'm an avid backpacker," he told the New York Times. However, McClish attempted to construct a camp for himself that first chilly night, but the brush he chose to light a fire was damp.

In search of greater cover, he then went across a canyon, and the following day he set out to locate a creek he believed to be nearby. "So I just kind of hiked," McClish 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."

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"I had a mountain lion that was following me, but it was cool," McClish added. "It kept its distance. I think it was just somebody watching over me."

However, on day five, McClish began to feel anxious and looked for a means to return to civilization. He said: "I knew I would eventually reach the ocean if I continued to follow the sun , but I had no idea how far I was from the ocean."