Heart-warming pictures of hiker reuniting with family after being lost in California woods for 10 days
A hiker who lost more than 13kg after disappearing in California’s woods had to have rocks removed from his back.
Pictures have emerged of the moment a shirtless Lukas McClish, 34, was reunited with his family after being lost for 10 days in Big Basin Redwood State Park.
Mr McClish was last seen on 11 June but was only reported missing on 16 June, when he failed to show up for a Father’s Day dinner, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office.
He was found on Friday after people reported hearing someone scream and drones were deployed to track him down.
The hiker reuniting with his loved ones. Pic: SLV Steve
Mr McClish, an experienced hiker, told the New York Times (NYT) he drank water from creeks and ate wild berries in order to survive – a “diet” which saw him lose 13.6kg (30lbs).
“I was kind of doing the water-diet thing,” said Mr McClish. “If you drink a gallon and a half of water every day, you don’t need food until you run out of carbs.”
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Mr McClish got lost on 11 June. Pic: SLV Steve
Mr McClish described how he had very little on him when he embarked on what he thought would only be a three-hour hike before work.
“I left with just a pair of pants, and my pair of hiking shoes, and a hat. I had a flashlight, and a pair of folding scissors, like a Leatherman tool. And that was about it,” he told ABC7.
But he ended up getting lost as landmarks along the track had been eroded by fires.
Emergency services deployed drones to the area after screaming was heard. Pic: SLV Steve
The sheriff’s office said it had received multiple reports of witnesses hearing someone yelling for help.
State Parks rangers were the first to discover him and fire crews helped bring him to safety on Friday.
During the first few days of his ordeal, Mr McClish tried to see his experience as an opportunity to spend time with himself and test his survival skills.
“So, I kind of just hiked,” he said. “Each day, I go up a canyon, down a canyon to the next waterfall, sit down by the waterfall, drink water out of my boot.”
But by day five, he started to look at ways of getting back home.
“I knew if I kept following the sun I’d get to the ocean eventually, but I didn’t know how far from the ocean I was,” he said.
By day eight, Mr McClish was repeatedly shouting in the hope of getting someone’s attention as he suffered from hypothermia and had fallen while walking over a rock face.
Once rescued, Mr McClish was taken to hospital for a night, where he had rocks removed from his back, the NYT quoted him as saying.
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“I did enough hiking for probably the whole rest of the year,” he said.
“Me too,” his dad said.
“We’ve all hiked a lot,” his mother added.
A Spanish military jet with a defence minister on board suffered a GPS “disturbance” while on the way to Lithuania, according to Spanish officials.
The military aircraft was flying near Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave on Wednesday morning when the incident is reported to have happened.
Margarita Robles was the minister on the flight, according to Spanish officials.
A commander onboard the Spanish plane said such incidents are common when flying near Kaliningrad, both for civil and military aircraft – and military satellites could also be used to navigate.
A Spanish defence ministry spokesperson said: “There has been an attempt to disrupt the GPS signal, but as our aircraft has an encrypted system, it was not affected.
“It must be common on this route and also with commercial flights. It is not because it is our aircraft.”
Read more: Who is messing with GPS signals – and why?
Ms Robles was due to have a bilateral meeting with her Lithuanian counterpart Dovile Sakaliene during a visit to the Siauliai airbase on Wednesday, according to the Spanish government’s agenda.
The plane was also carrying relatives of Spanish airmen forming part of the new NATO air defence mission on Europe’s eastern flank.
It was launched earlier this month after Poland shot down drones that had violated its airspace.
The Spanish contingent last week intercepted eight Russian aircraft operating over the Baltic Sea, Spain’s defence ministry added in a statement.
Ms Robles, 68, has been Spain’s defence minister since 2018.
In June, she said Spain was “absolutely committed” to NATO and the European Union.
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Ursula von der Leyen speaks in Lithuania on 1 September. Pic: AP
Then in August, the minister said Spain would work to “invigorate” the European fighter jet project, known as FCAS.
It came after Spain revealed it was no longer considering the option of buying US-made F-35 fighter jets and would refocus its defence spending on buying European-made equipment.
At the end of August, a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suffered GPS jamming as a result of suspected Russian interference, an EU spokesperson told Sky News.
Estonia and neighbouring Finland have also previously blamed Russia for jamming GPS navigation devices in the region’s airspace.
Russia has denied interfering with communication and satellite networks.
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At least 14 people have been killed in an area of Taiwan popular with tourists after Super Typhoon Ragasa lashed the island nation, with Hong Kong and mainland China braced for impact.
The powerful storm – the strongest in years – has forced thousands to flee their homes, with flights cancelled and schools and businesses shuttered as about 70cm (28 inches) of rain has fallen on eastern areas.
At least four more people were reported to have been killed in the Philippines, where nearly 700,000 people were affected by the super typhoon in the main northern region of Luzon.
The deaths in Taiwan were reported in the eastern Taiwanese county of Hualien, which is popular with tourists.
At least 129 people are missing after a town, Guangfu, was flooded by a deluge from a barrier lake which burst its banks on Tuesday afternoon.
Around 60 million tonnes of water was released, the Taiwanese government said, the equivalent of a major reservoir in southern Taiwan.
A man stands near a military vehicle on a road filled with mud brought by flooding in Hualien, Taiwan. Pic: Reuters
Taiwan’s fire department said all the fatalities and missing people are from Guangfu.
One resident, a postman who gave his family name as Hsieh, told Reuters news agency the water hit like a “tsunami” which swept his car into his living room.
Late on Wednesday morning, a new flood warning sounded in Guangfu, where shouts were heard from residents and rescuers of “the flood waters are coming, run fast”.
Elsewhere, Dama, a village of around 1,000 people, has been completely flooded.
Its chieftain, Wang Tse-an, told Reuters many locals are still stranded there, adding: “It’s chaotic now. There are mud and rocks everywhere.”
Regions across Taiwan have sent at least 340 soldiers to Hualien to help rescue efforts.
In Guangfu, troops operating from an armoured personnel carrier to avoid the thick mud on the streets went door-to-door
handing out water and instant noodles.
Ragasa is set to hit China’s Guangdong province, where more than 370,000 residents have been evacuated, on Wednesday.
Hong Kong’s storm level is at its highest level of 10 as people reported being woken by fierce winds in the early hours.
Parts of a pedestrian bridge’s roof were blown away, hundreds of trees were knocked down across the city and more than 30 injured people were treated at hospitals.
A video that showed waves of water crashing through the doors of a hotel and flooding its interiors went viral in the financial hub, where warnings of hurricane-force winds of well over 120mph have been issued.
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