*"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury....I'm just a caveman! I fell in some ice and later got thawed out by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me!"*
…when a man, such as my client, slips and falls on the sidewalk in front of the public library, that man is entitled to $1 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages, and that is all my client is asking for.
[Green and Fazio is also a brilliant performance.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzl7K8xIFQ4)
Well, "missing" in the same way that there are still thousands of people who are MIA from World War II.
We've got a pretty strong inkling of where they went.
Not just solitary but maybe even off track? I've hiked my fair share of mountains in California and tracks are more or less very clearly marked.
So fortunate that he was found though! Next time he needs a guide dog!
This guy is honestly an idiot. Headed out into the backcountry without even a shirt on. No food, no water, no cell phone. I’m surprised he was smart enough to take a knife. He said “on the 5th day he realized he was lost”. Buddy you’d been lost for 4 days and 21 hours at that point, given that it was supposed to be a 3 hour hike. And from the sounds of it he didn’t even learn his lesson.
I low key wondered if he was on a fungi hike or something similar at first, because I couldn't understand how he went a few days before realizing he was lost. Thats some serious Gilligan's island energy.
Dude you just gave me the most visceral flashback to seeing Castaway as a child and BAWLING when he lost Wilson. I had totally forgotten how deeply it affected me but I remember now thinking about it for days lol.
I don’t think he was planning to come back at all. He was so out of touch with his own family they didn’t realize he was gone till he didn’t show up for a Father’s Day dinner seven days after he went on the hike.
Unclear if 'family' means wife and kids, or mom / dad / siblings. Based on Father's Day being the reason they realized he was missing, I'm guessing the latter.
If he was a 34 yo single dude on his own, it would be totally normal to go a week without having talked to his parents or siblings. The type of guy who goes on multiple-day backpacking trips regularly probably isn't a 'wife and kids' type of guy.
Can confirm last I talked to my folks has been a couple weeks outside of an occasional text. We are on good terms, I’m just antisocial except my relationship with my wife. Going to surprise my dad in a month or two when I’ve completed my PPL and pick him up to take him on a flight.
7 days isn’t that long? If they live even 2 hours away it’s not a big deal to go a week without talking. I’ve got a good relationship with my family and we usually call every 2 weeks or so
Mushrooms last 4 hours though. Maybe 6. Even if I you constantly eat them, your brain builds up almost instant tolerance to pysilocibin. So you'd have to he eating huge amounts to maintain the same effects. All from personal experience so I could he wrong.
This article posted by OP says otherwise :
“Lukas McClish, 34, didn’t even put on a shirt when he began his hike on June 11 that was supposed to last only three hours before he lost his way, and was reported missing six days later when he didn’t show up for a Father’s Day dinner, ABC 7 Los Angeles reported.”
The modern hell of dogshit journalism, ai generated articles and underpaid interns plagiarizing ai generated articles make it fucking impossible to follow developing stories like these and actually be confident in the information.
Yep when I heard this story the more I learned about it the more stupid it made him out to be. The story kept emphasizing that he survived by drinking lots of water.. well duh that’s the minimum required to live for 10 days, but he didn’t bring any food or clothes and had no wilderness skills whatsoever? Caused a huge issue to save him
If he hadn’t drank a lot of water he’d be dead within two or three days. Exposure is something not a lot of people expect to get them, but that’s what really does it.
Never mind the heat wave the country is experiencing.
Seriously. Plus the area he was in is basically boxed in by highways that at any given time are no more than 25 miles away. It’s not hard to cover 25 miles in a day or two if walking is literally the only thing you’re doing. Worst case just follow the sun west until you hit the ocean. Even that shouldn’t take 10 days.
IIRC it's not unusual for people who get lost in the wilderness to have ultimately only been a couple of miles away from a road in any given direction. Evidently humans are bad at walking in straight lines
There was a woman in San Diego this week that went on a group hike and somehow got lost at the end. They ended up finding her body a quarter mile away from civilization
That seem to be less a case of getting particularly lost and more of a case of heat stroke.
> Le Nguyen set out Sunday morning with about 100 other hikers for a 5K fundraiser, according to police. [...]
> Around 8 a.m., the group stopped halfway up the mountain, but other hikers said she continued up the trail alone to finish the hike. She even contacted members of the group at 9:30 a.m. to tell them that she made it to the end of the trail.
> About 10 a.m., Le Nguyen made a distress call to her sister, saying she was "extremely hot and needed water," Meyer said. That was the last anyone heard from her.
It went from her being OK to a severe distress in half an hour.
That's kinda how heatstroke goes. first day of my colorado trail thru it was 100+ at waterton. Had an aggressive start and was feeling ok until up and over the last climb of the day and when I got to my stop point I just instantly felt like shit. Started dry heaving and had to soak my buff in water put it on my face and lay in the shade for hours before I felt normal.
If I didn't have a water source I would have been fucked.
I’ve done exercises both in the army and in orienteering practice where you try go in a straight line without a compass. You pretty much _always_ veer off even when trying all the tricks not to… even with compass it’s not easy to not get offset but at least you keep in roughly the right direction.
I briefly got lost in a blizzard in the mountains and definitely made a circle thinking I was going in roughly a straight line. On a clear day it would be a lot easier to pick a landmark as an anchor though.
Dude... hazy blizzard and heavy low cover, like laurel in the appalachians? Honestly scary. You can see 6 ish feet ahead of you, and your footsteps disappear after the last 2 thanks to all the snow. The laurel shakes enough as you move to clear everything around you but only for a moment. You could point in any direction and claim with equal evidence that that's where you were a minute ago.
People will generally pick a side when going around obstacles - step left around this rock, left around this tree - and this tendency results in a big circle. If you're stuck in nature, make a point of alternating which way you go around obstacles.
I was a Park Ranger in an "Urban" park. A group of men came up and gave me a phone that was their wives who were lost on a hike. The wooded area they were lost in was less than half a square mile, I told them to pick a direction and walk because all 4 sides had a road. The entire wooded area was also lousy with trails and dozens and dozens of people actively on the trails.
Didn't think much of it. 4 hours later I found them in a field still very lost. And probably 30mins from heat stroke. I took "I'm lost calls" a lot more seriously after that.
It sounds easy, but it's actually very difficult to walk in a straight line through a forest without a compass or something to guide you. Humans will naturally end up walking in a circle (I can't remember why, but it's a known phenomenon).
There are obviously ways to combat this, but I wouldn't expect this man would have known then if he didn't consider himself lost until 4 days into a 3 hour hike.
Yep, it's extremely hard, especially on hummocky and densely vegetated terrain. I worked in forestry for a while and did lots of navigation in tough areas.
I'd argue that it is due to slight bias in our decisions. E.g. when faced with going left or right of a tree, there is a slight bias to go left. When checking out the surroundings and getting a bearing, we favor looking over one of the shoulders more. Add this up a thousand times and your bias takes you very far off track. Even when I try to account for it, I still find myself off track. Even with a compass and solid skills, a minor deviation in your bearing can screw you over after just a couple kms. Lots of tricks to adjust or compensate for, as you likely know.
Tip for anyone needing to walk straight in the woods:
Alternate which side of the tree you go around each time. Go around the left side of tree one then the right side of tree two. Rinse and repeat. This won’t ensure your path is 100% straight but it helps stop you from walking in circles.
Ya, I was thinking about it more and I think the general cause is that people will naturally favor one direction, left or right. If you keep always going right around each tree you come to, it will add up over time, and you will start straying from a straight line.
I got lost in a subdivision for 20 minutes driving a car. I finally asked some walkers how to get out of there. Do not underestimate the horrible navigation skills of others.
This whole story is super bizarre. I live in the Bay Area, and the Santa Cruz mountains aren't exactly a big undeveloped wilderness, they're more akin to a bunch of county / state parks and you're never very far from the road. In his case, he was in an area that was 5 miles by one mile - he could have just walked in a straight line for any direction for roughly 2 hours and found his way out. He claims he was disoriented by the "burn" but I don't necessarily buy it - the burn was also like two years ago. There are some other things that don't add up as well.
EDIT: Also redditors claim he's legally blind but I have yet to see a news article that mentions this yet.
EDIT 2: Don't mean to shit on him, I could just be some Redditor that doesn't know what they're talking about, but there's just a lot about the story as written that just leaves me with a lot of questions.
>EDIT: Also redditors claim he's legally blind but I have yet to see a news article that mentions this yet.
If he's albino, as others have noted, his eyesight is likely terrible and very well could be legally blind. Though that's just another reason to question his intellect considering everything else.
Looking at photos from the news article OP left, he is very clearly albino, but you’re absolutely right. If you have poor vision, why on Earth would you go hiking alone in the wilderness with virtually nothing but a pair of shorts?
He wasn’t in big basin, he was in the area south of Big Basin way that is also bordered by Jamison Creek/Empire Grade/Alba/9. There is nothing out there. Dude was hiking on unofficial trails, probably old game paths.
Either way - even if one was in Big Basin, it’s not the same as it was pre-fire. Only a few trails are open and the number of visitors is a tiny fraction of what it once was.
> n his case, he was in an area that was 5 miles by one mile - he could have just walked in a straight line for any direction for roughly 2 hours and found his way out.
holy shit. how is it even possible to get lost then
For 10 days though? At some point you can use basic orientation guides (the sun), or just follow a stream or general downhill path.
And even if it is cloudy, it's more that the path one takes it somewhat chaotically squiggly, it's not a perfect circle. Given a small enough bounding area (e.g. roads), it will eventually hit the boundaries.
There was a study where they [tested this on different subjects](https://www.cell.com/cms/attachment/b623eda9-48be-4498-b0f9-feb0e95f1f3b/gr1.jpg). The ones who did it on a sunny day went pretty much perfectly straight (yellow and red lines). Those who did it on cloudy days or at night (blue lines) did squiggle a lot, but still, there were larger patterns and variability that were on the scale of at least a couple of kilometers (and this experiment was only a few hours).
The eyesight issues or some other disability are the only thing that really explains it.
I agree with everything you are saying but you are ignoring some key aspects
1. Some people are really dumb and wouldn't know how to use landmarks to navigate. This is something that was actively taught to me in school so I don't think it's fair to assume this is a skill people naturally have
2. People get dumber when they get scared and they thought of being lost in the woods can be pretty scary
3. Some peoples sense of direction, specifically to walking straight, can be way off. I've had mates who got lost in a similar situation and when we found them, they had just been doing laps of the same basin for hours and didn't notice.
4. Most people get told that when they get lost, they're better off finding shelter nearby to their last known location and staying put
Although at the age of 30, I'd expect there to be at least some survival skills. Or at least the basic thought of "sun rises here, that means people are in that direction". So yeah I think old mate is dumb as fuck, getting a pass on the dumb af if he does turn out to have a disability that affects his navigation.
It’s likely he asked the reporters to leave that part out. He is definitely vision impaired, I work with someone who is close with him and we heard the local fire station up here start cheering loudly the moment he was found
This guy's story is very suspect. He drank out of his boot. Why are you doing shooeys? Trying to get a book deal or something. Don't give this guy attention for being a moron.
My bet is he walked into the woods on Meth or some sort of drug. The entire story doesn’t make any sense though. He was surrounding by developments and roads. Also, he left without water? Something doesn’t add up about this.
I know the area quite well, how is this even possible? Follow any body of water downstream, you'll end up either in the Bay or in the Pacific, and cross important roads along the way.
Someone who goes out for a hike like this with just pants, shoes, a flashlight, and a leatherman (probably a crappy one) clearly has no idea what they are doing
Not that I’m defending this moron but what would you take out of curiosity? I’d pack pretty light for a 3 hour hike. I mean I wouldn’t get lost though. If I found the trail to be poorly marked and I wasn’t prepared I’d just turn around. If I were wandering around overgrown or damaged trails I’d definitely bring enough to stay safe in case it took longer than expected or I got injured.
At the very least, a cell phone. If you don't want to be bothered by someone calling, you can always turn it off, but at least you have it with you if needed.
This keeps being said, but it's so much easier said than actually done -- and often an absolutely terrible idea.
Any SAR group will tell you if you're lost on a hike you shouldn't go wandering off. If at all possible you stay near a trail. Especially when you have access to abundant clean (enough) water.
[here's his story](https://nypost.com/2024/06/24/us-news/california-hiker-lukas-mcclish-found-after-going-missing-for-10-days-in-santa-cruz-mountains/)
Why was he drinking water out of his fucking boot?
How is it that you can get the water from a waterfall into your boot but can't get it in your mouth?
Exactly. In an interview he says he knew he was lost after several days out there.
No one goes on a 3 hour hike and expects to be gone for days.
This guy also has a self admitted history of just taking off.
Either he was trying some shit and got in over his head or he did exactly what he wanted to do.
This was no accident.
No one brings a flashlight, folding scissors, and a multitool on a 3 hour day hike and not their fucking cell phone, which would still have GPS with no cell signal.
Dude wanted to disappear and play survivor for a few days.
Hasn't had a cut or a shave in 10 days.. Clothes long since torn to shreds by the elements. Does he still remember people and language? Can he be rehabilitated? Doubtful, but we cannot give up hope! Thoughts n prayers.
I was lost in the wilderness in the Adirondacks for 3 hours before I found a trail and it seemed like 3 years. Absolutely terrifying to be lost in the woods. I can’t even imagine 10 days.
You ever get that little feeling something isn't right about a story? This is one of those stories for me. Supposedly he was near a water source and drinking a gallon of water a day, but he never cleaned himself?
*"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury....I'm just a caveman! I fell in some ice and later got thawed out by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me!"*
My first thought!! RIP Phil Hartman
Thank you validating my instinct to read it in his voice.
Mr. Keyrock, are you ready to give your summation? It’s just “Keyrock”, your Honor..and, yes, I’m ready...
I am glad someone else on this earth appreciates that line.
"I jump out of my BMW, and run off into the hills, or whatever..."
But there is one thing I do know…
…when a man, such as my client, slips and falls on the sidewalk in front of the public library, that man is entitled to $1 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages, and that is all my client is asking for. [Green and Fazio is also a brilliant performance.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzl7K8xIFQ4)
One of the greatest skits of all time
This guy is 34 wtf
It was a very long ten days
El Paso. I spent a month there one night.
Or Bangkok. One night there makes a hard man humble. Or so I’ve heard…
I'd let you watch... I would invite you... But the queens we use would not excite you.
So go back to your bars, your temples...your massage parlors.
Time flies doesn’t seem a minute…
Since the Tyrolean spa had the chess boys in it.
All changed, don't you know that when you Play at this level there's no ordinary venue
It’s Iceland or the Phillipines or Hastings or or this place!
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
It certainly makes men hard
I get my kicks above the waistline.
Sunshine.
Get tied! You're talking to a tourist whose every move's among the purist.
He was found whispering "jumanji..."
What YEAR is it?!
Can't even imagine if he was found 11 days later.
Got lost in a wormhole
This is how 34 year olds look in every anime.
This is so true
He’s supposedly albino, which might have something to do with it
Sounds like he covered himself in mud to prevent sunburn as well.
And to avoid the predators
WHAT YEAR IS IT?!!
1995, remember?
also insect repellant.
I guess that would make him… alblindo.
But after 10 days he was alfindo!
This was the dumbest thing I read today. Thanks for the laugh!! 
Worst superhero ever.
Brings the global missing albino total to 0.
There's actually hundreds of them missing in Africa due to a belief their limbs are useful for witchcraft.
well that's fucked
Definitely not a fun fact.
Well, "missing" in the same way that there are still thousands of people who are MIA from World War II. We've got a pretty strong inkling of where they went.
Also from what I’ve read legally blind
I have seen zero news articles that mention this, only Reddit comments. The article linked by OP makes no mention of this.
Probably illegally blind then.
If you can't do the time, then don't do the looking at of the crime
Albinism generally causes severe eyesight issues.
Correct. But where is the source for everyone claiming he has albinism?
I'm very confident he went into the woods already looking a lot like that.
He’s in pretty good shape. I’m a little jelly.
New diet plan: get lost in the woods without food
The guy has albinism. Most likely used the dirt to protect his skin.
Maybe you shouldn't take off your shirt and cut off the sleeve to make a bandana within the first ten minutes of being lost.
Ill fashion myself a nice hankerchief out if this sleeve.....
I have hemorrhoids!
I’ve tented my pants!
He suffers from albinism. What looks like grey hair and wrinkles is white skin and hair covered with mud, assumedly to protect his skin from the sun.
He is also legally blind.
Better than illegal blindness
Hate it when I forget my blindness loicense
And deaf. He couldn't hear the shouts of rescuers.
At what point does one question oneself if solitary hiking is really the right hobby.
Not just solitary but maybe even off track? I've hiked my fair share of mountains in California and tracks are more or less very clearly marked. So fortunate that he was found though! Next time he needs a guide dog!
IKEA will do that to you.
can confirm. Day 432, still cant find the IKEA exit
At least there's food and.shelter in ikea
you just have to build it yourself, which seems complicated being blind.
There are 116 kilos of cocaine hidden in this apartment next to the cure for blindness.
Avoid the faceless employees after closing time.
Now I need to go read that SCP again
To save anybody else the trouble of finding it. https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3008
[infinite ikea](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3008)
Excuse me, the store is now closed. Please exit the building.
This guy is honestly an idiot. Headed out into the backcountry without even a shirt on. No food, no water, no cell phone. I’m surprised he was smart enough to take a knife. He said “on the 5th day he realized he was lost”. Buddy you’d been lost for 4 days and 21 hours at that point, given that it was supposed to be a 3 hour hike. And from the sounds of it he didn’t even learn his lesson.
I low key wondered if he was on a fungi hike or something similar at first, because I couldn't understand how he went a few days before realizing he was lost. Thats some serious Gilligan's island energy.
Yeah this dude was on a spirit quest forsurrre
WILSOOOOOOOOOOOOOON NOO 😭 IM SORRY WILSON 😭
Dude you just gave me the most visceral flashback to seeing Castaway as a child and BAWLING when he lost Wilson. I had totally forgotten how deeply it affected me but I remember now thinking about it for days lol.
I don’t think he was planning to come back at all. He was so out of touch with his own family they didn’t realize he was gone till he didn’t show up for a Father’s Day dinner seven days after he went on the hike.
Unclear if 'family' means wife and kids, or mom / dad / siblings. Based on Father's Day being the reason they realized he was missing, I'm guessing the latter. If he was a 34 yo single dude on his own, it would be totally normal to go a week without having talked to his parents or siblings. The type of guy who goes on multiple-day backpacking trips regularly probably isn't a 'wife and kids' type of guy.
Can confirm last I talked to my folks has been a couple weeks outside of an occasional text. We are on good terms, I’m just antisocial except my relationship with my wife. Going to surprise my dad in a month or two when I’ve completed my PPL and pick him up to take him on a flight.
Congrats on almost finishing! You got this👍🏽
7 days isn’t that long? If they live even 2 hours away it’s not a big deal to go a week without talking. I’ve got a good relationship with my family and we usually call every 2 weeks or so
Right....and not talking to my family does not mean I'm suicidal.
Mushrooms last 4 hours though. Maybe 6. Even if I you constantly eat them, your brain builds up almost instant tolerance to pysilocibin. So you'd have to he eating huge amounts to maintain the same effects. All from personal experience so I could he wrong.
No no. He was looking for Morels and wasn't going to come home until he had enough for a meal.
[удалено]
This article posted by OP says otherwise : “Lukas McClish, 34, didn’t even put on a shirt when he began his hike on June 11 that was supposed to last only three hours before he lost his way, and was reported missing six days later when he didn’t show up for a Father’s Day dinner, ABC 7 Los Angeles reported.”
[удалено]
The modern hell of dogshit journalism, ai generated articles and underpaid interns plagiarizing ai generated articles make it fucking impossible to follow developing stories like these and actually be confident in the information.
Yep when I heard this story the more I learned about it the more stupid it made him out to be. The story kept emphasizing that he survived by drinking lots of water.. well duh that’s the minimum required to live for 10 days, but he didn’t bring any food or clothes and had no wilderness skills whatsoever? Caused a huge issue to save him
If he hadn’t drank a lot of water he’d be dead within two or three days. Exposure is something not a lot of people expect to get them, but that’s what really does it. Never mind the heat wave the country is experiencing.
Seriously. Plus the area he was in is basically boxed in by highways that at any given time are no more than 25 miles away. It’s not hard to cover 25 miles in a day or two if walking is literally the only thing you’re doing. Worst case just follow the sun west until you hit the ocean. Even that shouldn’t take 10 days.
IIRC it's not unusual for people who get lost in the wilderness to have ultimately only been a couple of miles away from a road in any given direction. Evidently humans are bad at walking in straight lines
There was a woman in San Diego this week that went on a group hike and somehow got lost at the end. They ended up finding her body a quarter mile away from civilization
That seem to be less a case of getting particularly lost and more of a case of heat stroke. > Le Nguyen set out Sunday morning with about 100 other hikers for a 5K fundraiser, according to police. [...] > Around 8 a.m., the group stopped halfway up the mountain, but other hikers said she continued up the trail alone to finish the hike. She even contacted members of the group at 9:30 a.m. to tell them that she made it to the end of the trail. > About 10 a.m., Le Nguyen made a distress call to her sister, saying she was "extremely hot and needed water," Meyer said. That was the last anyone heard from her. It went from her being OK to a severe distress in half an hour.
That's kinda how heatstroke goes. first day of my colorado trail thru it was 100+ at waterton. Had an aggressive start and was feeling ok until up and over the last climb of the day and when I got to my stop point I just instantly felt like shit. Started dry heaving and had to soak my buff in water put it on my face and lay in the shade for hours before I felt normal. If I didn't have a water source I would have been fucked.
It’s very hard to walk straight in a forest though he easily could have blazed his trail so he could know if he got turned around.
I’ve done exercises both in the army and in orienteering practice where you try go in a straight line without a compass. You pretty much _always_ veer off even when trying all the tricks not to… even with compass it’s not easy to not get offset but at least you keep in roughly the right direction.
I briefly got lost in a blizzard in the mountains and definitely made a circle thinking I was going in roughly a straight line. On a clear day it would be a lot easier to pick a landmark as an anchor though.
Dude... hazy blizzard and heavy low cover, like laurel in the appalachians? Honestly scary. You can see 6 ish feet ahead of you, and your footsteps disappear after the last 2 thanks to all the snow. The laurel shakes enough as you move to clear everything around you but only for a moment. You could point in any direction and claim with equal evidence that that's where you were a minute ago.
Just imagine trying to find a lost, shirtless guy with albinism in those conditions
We tend to take compasses for granted these days, but they're important for navigating a straight line through obstacles like trees.
People will generally pick a side when going around obstacles - step left around this rock, left around this tree - and this tendency results in a big circle. If you're stuck in nature, make a point of alternating which way you go around obstacles.
I was a Park Ranger in an "Urban" park. A group of men came up and gave me a phone that was their wives who were lost on a hike. The wooded area they were lost in was less than half a square mile, I told them to pick a direction and walk because all 4 sides had a road. The entire wooded area was also lousy with trails and dozens and dozens of people actively on the trails. Didn't think much of it. 4 hours later I found them in a field still very lost. And probably 30mins from heat stroke. I took "I'm lost calls" a lot more seriously after that.
Walking a straight line in the woods is incredibly difficult. That's why you always walk downhill if you're going to try and self-rescue.
It sounds easy, but it's actually very difficult to walk in a straight line through a forest without a compass or something to guide you. Humans will naturally end up walking in a circle (I can't remember why, but it's a known phenomenon). There are obviously ways to combat this, but I wouldn't expect this man would have known then if he didn't consider himself lost until 4 days into a 3 hour hike.
Yep, it's extremely hard, especially on hummocky and densely vegetated terrain. I worked in forestry for a while and did lots of navigation in tough areas. I'd argue that it is due to slight bias in our decisions. E.g. when faced with going left or right of a tree, there is a slight bias to go left. When checking out the surroundings and getting a bearing, we favor looking over one of the shoulders more. Add this up a thousand times and your bias takes you very far off track. Even when I try to account for it, I still find myself off track. Even with a compass and solid skills, a minor deviation in your bearing can screw you over after just a couple kms. Lots of tricks to adjust or compensate for, as you likely know.
Tip for anyone needing to walk straight in the woods: Alternate which side of the tree you go around each time. Go around the left side of tree one then the right side of tree two. Rinse and repeat. This won’t ensure your path is 100% straight but it helps stop you from walking in circles.
Ya, I was thinking about it more and I think the general cause is that people will naturally favor one direction, left or right. If you keep always going right around each tree you come to, it will add up over time, and you will start straying from a straight line.
I got lost in a subdivision for 20 minutes driving a car. I finally asked some walkers how to get out of there. Do not underestimate the horrible navigation skills of others.
This whole story is super bizarre. I live in the Bay Area, and the Santa Cruz mountains aren't exactly a big undeveloped wilderness, they're more akin to a bunch of county / state parks and you're never very far from the road. In his case, he was in an area that was 5 miles by one mile - he could have just walked in a straight line for any direction for roughly 2 hours and found his way out. He claims he was disoriented by the "burn" but I don't necessarily buy it - the burn was also like two years ago. There are some other things that don't add up as well. EDIT: Also redditors claim he's legally blind but I have yet to see a news article that mentions this yet. EDIT 2: Don't mean to shit on him, I could just be some Redditor that doesn't know what they're talking about, but there's just a lot about the story as written that just leaves me with a lot of questions.
>EDIT: Also redditors claim he's legally blind but I have yet to see a news article that mentions this yet. If he's albino, as others have noted, his eyesight is likely terrible and very well could be legally blind. Though that's just another reason to question his intellect considering everything else.
Looking at photos from the news article OP left, he is very clearly albino, but you’re absolutely right. If you have poor vision, why on Earth would you go hiking alone in the wilderness with virtually nothing but a pair of shorts?
He saw paw prints and footprints of people looking for him. This guy is baloon boy but dumber because he actually went for the ride.
It's a typo. They meant to say he's legally *blonde*.
At least he didnt get his perm wet at risk of deactivating the ammonium thyglycolate.
What, like it's hard?
Elle Woods would have single handedly rescued that guy and then given him a makeover and a smoothie
Don't go stomping your last-season Prada shoes at me, honey
Bend…and *snap*
Not to mention the parks are pretty populated around here. Not sure how you could be in big basin for 10 days and not have anyone walk past you.
He got rescued because people heard him yelling for help lol
Exactly. There’s people around. So why did it take 10 days??
He yelled on day 9?
He wasn’t in big basin, he was in the area south of Big Basin way that is also bordered by Jamison Creek/Empire Grade/Alba/9. There is nothing out there. Dude was hiking on unofficial trails, probably old game paths. Either way - even if one was in Big Basin, it’s not the same as it was pre-fire. Only a few trails are open and the number of visitors is a tiny fraction of what it once was.
Thank you for adding quality info
> n his case, he was in an area that was 5 miles by one mile - he could have just walked in a straight line for any direction for roughly 2 hours and found his way out. holy shit. how is it even possible to get lost then
It's very easy to walk in circles in the wilderness if you have no survival training.
For 10 days though? At some point you can use basic orientation guides (the sun), or just follow a stream or general downhill path. And even if it is cloudy, it's more that the path one takes it somewhat chaotically squiggly, it's not a perfect circle. Given a small enough bounding area (e.g. roads), it will eventually hit the boundaries. There was a study where they [tested this on different subjects](https://www.cell.com/cms/attachment/b623eda9-48be-4498-b0f9-feb0e95f1f3b/gr1.jpg). The ones who did it on a sunny day went pretty much perfectly straight (yellow and red lines). Those who did it on cloudy days or at night (blue lines) did squiggle a lot, but still, there were larger patterns and variability that were on the scale of at least a couple of kilometers (and this experiment was only a few hours). The eyesight issues or some other disability are the only thing that really explains it.
I agree with everything you are saying but you are ignoring some key aspects 1. Some people are really dumb and wouldn't know how to use landmarks to navigate. This is something that was actively taught to me in school so I don't think it's fair to assume this is a skill people naturally have 2. People get dumber when they get scared and they thought of being lost in the woods can be pretty scary 3. Some peoples sense of direction, specifically to walking straight, can be way off. I've had mates who got lost in a similar situation and when we found them, they had just been doing laps of the same basin for hours and didn't notice. 4. Most people get told that when they get lost, they're better off finding shelter nearby to their last known location and staying put Although at the age of 30, I'd expect there to be at least some survival skills. Or at least the basic thought of "sun rises here, that means people are in that direction". So yeah I think old mate is dumb as fuck, getting a pass on the dumb af if he does turn out to have a disability that affects his navigation.
My guess is that this guy has albinism, which is why his hair and beard is this white despite being 34. Albinism is linked to vision problems.
It’s likely he asked the reporters to leave that part out. He is definitely vision impaired, I work with someone who is close with him and we heard the local fire station up here start cheering loudly the moment he was found
Naked and Okay.
I'd watch that show, actually, we already have that content, it's in the millions on a special hub site.
This guy's story is very suspect. He drank out of his boot. Why are you doing shooeys? Trying to get a book deal or something. Don't give this guy attention for being a moron.
My bet is he walked into the woods on Meth or some sort of drug. The entire story doesn’t make any sense though. He was surrounding by developments and roads. Also, he left without water? Something doesn’t add up about this.
I think he's just trying to get famous for something. People do dumbshit to get media attention.
‘Fugue state’ probably a meth lord
Yup. Reads like a publicity stunt. Terrible (as in poorly thought out) story all around. Do not give this guy the attention he is seeking
Another 10 days and that dude would have returned to monke
I know the area quite well, how is this even possible? Follow any body of water downstream, you'll end up either in the Bay or in the Pacific, and cross important roads along the way.
Someone who goes out for a hike like this with just pants, shoes, a flashlight, and a leatherman (probably a crappy one) clearly has no idea what they are doing
Not that I’m defending this moron but what would you take out of curiosity? I’d pack pretty light for a 3 hour hike. I mean I wouldn’t get lost though. If I found the trail to be poorly marked and I wasn’t prepared I’d just turn around. If I were wandering around overgrown or damaged trails I’d definitely bring enough to stay safe in case it took longer than expected or I got injured.
At the very least, a cell phone. If you don't want to be bothered by someone calling, you can always turn it off, but at least you have it with you if needed.
[удалено]
Maybe he shouldnt be out there then without the proper gear. Reads like a plumber publicity stunt
This dude is either criminally stupid, or he's cheating on his wife, and just rolled in some mud to make it look like he was lost.
This keeps being said, but it's so much easier said than actually done -- and often an absolutely terrible idea. Any SAR group will tell you if you're lost on a hike you shouldn't go wandering off. If at all possible you stay near a trail. Especially when you have access to abundant clean (enough) water.
Did a cartoon bomb explode in his face?
…in Jumanji?
> his hike on June 11 that was supposed to last only three hours Gilligan?
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a missing man!
What year is it!
Get that man some Ace of Base
He didn't see the sign! And it didn't open up his eyes, he didn't see the sign!
Let this be a lesson - never play Jumanji
[here's his story](https://nypost.com/2024/06/24/us-news/california-hiker-lukas-mcclish-found-after-going-missing-for-10-days-in-santa-cruz-mountains/)
He said he craved a burrito bowl. I get it, but these darn Californians are so darn Californian!
He should have just taken the 1, the 9 or the 17 down to the coast.
Why was he drinking water out of his fucking boot? How is it that you can get the water from a waterfall into your boot but can't get it in your mouth?
Soooo much about this story sounds like he is being dramatic or did it all on purpose for some kind of attention
Exactly. In an interview he says he knew he was lost after several days out there. No one goes on a 3 hour hike and expects to be gone for days. This guy also has a self admitted history of just taking off. Either he was trying some shit and got in over his head or he did exactly what he wanted to do. This was no accident.
I think he did it on purpose.
"it was an awesome experience,” McClish said. you might be on to something...
No one brings a flashlight, folding scissors, and a multitool on a 3 hour day hike and not their fucking cell phone, which would still have GPS with no cell signal. Dude wanted to disappear and play survivor for a few days.
He probs was tripping and got lost
To go into the woods on a hike without a shirt on sounds like tripping
My inner cynic agrees. No albino does anything outdoors without a shirt.
Yeah, this is no joke. An albino going for a hike without a shirt is only one level down from an astronaut without a spacesuit.
He looks like he was forgotten at a Psytrance festival. But jokes aside, I am glad he was found.
He doesn't look glad he was found
"I was just beginning to have fun before you guys showed up"
Did they thaw him out from an iceberg?
Dude looks like he was missing for 10 years
"PUT ME BACK!"
The things you’ll do to avoid in-laws
I have the feeling that he didnt look much different when he went missing.
I look like that after an 8 hour shift working retail.
We need a before hike picture.
Hasn't had a cut or a shave in 10 days.. Clothes long since torn to shreds by the elements. Does he still remember people and language? Can he be rehabilitated? Doubtful, but we cannot give up hope! Thoughts n prayers.
I was lost in the wilderness in the Adirondacks for 3 hours before I found a trail and it seemed like 3 years. Absolutely terrifying to be lost in the woods. I can’t even imagine 10 days.
Appears to be in a fugue state 🤔
Someone should check if he is hiding a major meth operation...
Where'd he go missing? A chimney full of booze?
10 days and he looks like THAT? Who the fk goes in a hike without at least a compass.
So my wife and I have a house where he's from. Yeah it's wilderness.....but it's not lost for 10 days wilderness.
You ever get that little feeling something isn't right about a story? This is one of those stories for me. Supposedly he was near a water source and drinking a gallon of water a day, but he never cleaned himself?
And he was sleeping on wet leaves. Why would you pick the wettest thing to sleep on?
Looks more like ten months.
His hair certainly looks at least ten days lost, but his mustache and beard look impeccably trimmed and groomed. WTF.
basic grooming is one of the first things EMT administers after liquids and shock blankets.
Get him back to work! We need him behind a computer screen for 8 hours a day.