Lost in the Santa Cruz wilderness, Lucas McLeish began screaming for help, realizing that after more than a week with little food or supplies, his body was reaching its limits.
This strategy may have saved his life.
Many people heard his cries for help and directed rescue teams to a remote area of Big Basin Redwoods State Park near Forman Creek. First responders used drones to find the 34-year-old man in a remote forest, where he had been missing for 10 days.
McLeish, an avid hiker, was rescued Thursday without serious injuries and reunited with his family, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office. Photos from the scene show him emerging from the wilderness covered in mud and scratches, with disheveled hair and an unkempt beard, and an emotional reunion between the two.
Ten days ago, he set out on what he expected to be a short hike without even a shirt on his back.
“I left with just a pair of pants, a pair of hiking boots and a hat,” McLeish told ABC News. “I have a flashlight and a pair of folding scissors — like a Leatherman tool — and that’s it.”
He said he lost 30 pounds during the 10 days he was missing by drinking water from streams and waterfalls to stay alive. He told KSBW-TV News in Salinas that at one point, a mountain lion followed him, but he never worried too much about his survival until eventually he started dreaming about his next meal.
“I didn’t bring anything because I thought I was going to be on a three-hour hike,” he said.
While drinking nature’s water was McLeish’s only option, officials warned against the practice.
“Never drink water from a natural source that has not been purified, even if the water looks clean,” a National Park Service post warns. “Water from a stream, river, or lake may look clean, but it’s still Can be filled with bacteria, viruses and parasites that can cause water-borne diseases.”
When McCleish did not return home after several days, his family filed a missing person report, prompting the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office to circulate a bulletin calling him a “person at risk of missing.”
“This was truly a team effort that resulted in the best outcome we could have hoped for,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
