A California man was planning on hiking for three hours. Instead, he spent nine days lost in California’s Santa Cruz mountains.
After witnesses heard calls for help in a wooded era, officials found a disheveled Lukas McClish. He was shirtless, with only a flashlight and a pair of scissors, NBC affiliate KSBW of Salinas reported.
McClish, 34, had last been seen on the morning of June 11 in Boulder Creek — near Big Basin Redwoods State Park — about 14 miles north of Santa Cruz, officials have said.
He didn’t tell anyone he was going on a hike, but when he didn’t turn up for Father’s Day five days later, his family started to worry and reported him missing, KSBW reported.
McClish slept on a bed of wet leaves. He yelled for help and drank water from a creek out of his boot, eating wild berries while dreaming of a more comforting meal, he told the station.
“Just ‘Help, help, I’m over here. Is anybody out there? I want a burrito and a taco bowl,’” McClish told KSBW he would yell out. “That’s what I thought about every day after the first five days, when I started to kind of realize that I might be in over my head.”
McClish spent the days hiking up and down canyons, traveling from waterfall to waterfall. Despite being trailed by what some might consider an intimidating companion — a mountain lion — during his lost days, McClish said he felt “comfortable” the whole time.
“I had a mountain lion that was following me, but it was cool, and he kept his distance,” McClish told the station. “I think he was just somebody watching over me.”
Back at his home in Boulder Creek, McClish’s family struggled to sleep, his mother, Diane, worried whether her son was alive.
“Some nights, I just had to trust God that he was going to be OK,” she told KSBW.
Authorities used drones to determine McClish’s exact location after the cries for help were reported, and a rescue dog helped find him so he could be brought to safety.
Authorities said he suffered no major injuries.
Images of the rescue show the moment he was reunited with his family, McClish covered in dust but hugging his loved ones with relief.
Dozens of law enforcement officers and first responders from the Boulder Creek Fire Department, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, state parks and the California Department of Foresty and Fire Protection assisted in the search. McClish’s family thanked all of them — and friends and family who helped with the effort.
“I met a lot of people, because I had more people come to me and tell me how much they love my son and how they just hoped that we would find him,” Diane McClish told KSBW.
“I didn’t realize that so many people in this town love Luke,” she said.
