A hiker who went missing for 10 days has opened up about his ordeal and how he managed to survive in the wilderness.
As previously reported, Lukas McClish, 34, vanished after setting off on a three-hour walk through Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Boulder Creek on June 11.
An experienced hiker, McClish had intended to visit rare granite outcroppings in the area.
Assuming he would be gone for only a few hours, he did not inform anyone of his plans and even set out without a shirt.
However, McClish quickly found himself lost due to the destruction of landmarks by recent wildfires.
His family raised the alarm five days later when he failed to turn up for a Father's Day lunch, leading to a multi-day search and rescue effort.
With minimal supplies, McClish recounted to KGO-TV: "I left with a pair of pants, and my hiking shoes and a hat. I had a flashlight and a pair of folding scissors, like a Leatherman tool - and that was about it."
Despite his experience in hiking and landscaping in wildfire-ravaged forests, McClish was "astounded" at how quickly he became lost.
With no one aware of his whereabouts, it took five days for his family to notice his absence, prompting his eventual rescue after 10 days in the wild.
While he managed to find a reliable water supply, McClish faced other life-threatening challenges.
He revealed that a mountain lion had stalked him during his time in the wilderness. Fortunately, the animal kept its distance. "He kept his distance, he was a pretty cool lion, I guess," McClish recalled.
Additionally, McClish, who has albinism, had to ensure he had adequate shelter from the sun. While he found water, food was scarce, and he survived by eating wild berries. Despite this, he craved more substantial food.
Describing his calls for help, McClish told ABC7LA: "Just ‘Help, help. I’m over here.’ Or ‘Is anybody out there? I want a burrito and a taco bowl,’ that’s what I thought about every day when after the first five days, when I started to kind of realize that I might be in over my head."
He added: "Every day I hoped they would find me before 8:00PM so I could get a burrito and taco bowl."
McClish was rescued following a multi-agency search, and finally got to have his burrito and taco bowl.
During the ordeal, McClish spent nights sleeping on wet leaves and lost around 30 pounds.
His mother, Diane, told WDBJ: "Some nights, although I just had to trust God that he was going to be OK - and that was hard to do some nights, when we would go to bed at night, because I would worry about where he was, where he was sleeping, how cold he was and where he was if he was alive."
