Rescued hiker reveals how he survived barren California mountains for 10 DAYS with no shirt and only half a bear claw after falling 150 feet down enormous boulder

The shirtless landscaper who was dramatically rescued after getting lost in the California mountains has opened up to DailyMail.com about his epic 10-day fight for survival. 

Lukas McClish, 34, was only a mile from his lifelong home in Boulder Creek – midway between San Jose and Santa Cruz – when he vanished on June 11, triggering a police probe along with a 300-man search party. 

A seasoned hiker and avid outdoorsmen, McClish was planning to walk just a few miles to a job site where he had fresh clothes waiting. 

He was so comfortable with his mission that he went without a shirt and carried only half a bear claw donut for sustenance. 

He didn't even take his cell phone with him. 

But McClish didn't bargain for the fact that many of the landmarks on his route had been razed by a 2020 fire, and he rapidly lost his bearings amid the barren terrain. 

Over the next 10 days, the only other living creature he encountered was a mountain lion cub. On day nine, he faced a near-death experience when he slipped 150 feet down an enormous boulder – triggering a rockslide which left him with severe road rash. 

McClish was finally found in Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Friday when one of the people combing the Santa Cruz crags for any signs of life heard him screaming. 

Dramatic photographs show the moment he was reunited with his relieved relatives. The landscaper was malnourished, badly bruised, and covered in dirt – while his beard and hair were matted with soot. 

Five days later, on Tuesday, now-clean-shaven McClish opened up about his life-changing experience and how he managed to survive in the wild. 

‘This is where it all began,’ the gaunt 34-year-old told DailyMail.com, gesturing toward the unmarked trail where he set off on June 11. 

He retraced his route – through a barbed wire fence leading to a steep uphill climb through thick, prickly shrubbery which eventually cleared at a rocky precipice where trees were still charred from a fire in 2020. 

Though his wounds were still raw from the 150-foot slip down a boulder on day nine, McClish smiled broadly as he soaked in the beauty of the landscape – his love for the outdoors undiminished even as he recounted his harrowing experience.

His now-infamous hike started in the late morning, after he finished up at one job site in Boulder Creek.  

He told DailyMail.com that the owner allowed him private access to the woods behind his property. 

On a whim, he decided to hike to his next job site in Brookdale less than three miles away. 

An avid outdoorsman, he’d hiked in all seasons and conditions including in the Sierra Nevadas, but wasn’t prepared for the unforgiving terrain he’d encounter in his own backyard.

‘I’ve hiked these mountains all over, and this one spot I hadn’t really explored my whole life,’ he explained. ’So I was thinking, this is cool, I could go check out this trail and go to work.’

McClish said he’d misplaced his cell phone, and had clothes stashed at his next job site. He headed off shirtless into the hills. 

The landscaper only had half of the bear claw on him, but knew he could find water, with mountain springs burbling up at several points along his route.

But just a few hours in, he lost track of where he was because the CZU Lightning Complex fires had destroyed landmarks, logging trails and hundreds of houses.

‘I went across the canyon and then from there on out, I had no bearings,’ he said. ‘I just didn’t think I’d get lost in my own backyard. 

'It’s really kind of embarrassing. It was really just a few square miles radius, but it’s really maybe three times as long because it’s a long way up and down.

‘It was like being dropped into the middle of nowhere. I just kept hiking for a bit longer, expecting to run into somebody or hear some type of power equipment, or something, but there wasn’t any,’ he said. 

‘All the houses were burned up. I didn’t take that into consideration when I got started.’

McClish said he didn’t tell anyone where he was going because he only expected to be gone a short while. 

And his parents didn’t think to call police until five days later, when McClish failed to show up for a Father’s Day dinner.

‘It’s not unlike my son to not answer his phone,’ his dad Kevin McClish, a retired fire chief, told DailyMail.com. ‘We could go days without talking to him. He turns his phone off.’

For the first few days, the landscaper survived by filling up his leather boots with water for drinking. 

He slept out in the woods, struggling to stay warm with the cold wind blowing through the canyons. He regularly woke up and wandered around in the darkness. 

In the mornings, he’d feel a buzzing around his head, which he’d soon discover was hummingbirds.

‘I think they were trying to get into my hair,’ said McClish, who had been growing his hair for two years to donate to a cancer patient. 

‘That’s when I knew it was warm enough to move around again.’

He said the only other animal he saw was a mountain lion cub, which seemed to be following him from a distance.

‘He seemed to be following my trail, but I didn’t feel threatened by him,’ he said.

McClish said he felt safe for most of his adventure and he believed that if he really needed to, he could make his way out.

‘I never really felt I was lost lost,’ he said. ‘If I wasn’t so stubborn, I could probably have walked out any of those water paths, like the previous couple days,’ he told DailyMail.com.

‘I’ve wanted to see these places my whole life,’ he added. 

‘That’s one of the reasons I kept on going is because I made it to the first one and I drank the water out of there, and I’m like this is so cool, nobody ever gets to do this. 

And that’s what kept me going to the next one.

‘I wouldn’t have stayed out there if I wasn’t enjoying it, that’s the truth,’ he said. ‘I was having fun checking everything out, until it got to be not fun.’

But the cold nights took a toll, and his big fall came nine days in, as he was descending boulders to a water source. 

The fall triggered a rockslide that narrowly missed hitting McClish, but he was left with severe road rash.

He was also struggling from a lack of nourishment. He’d fantasize about a local taco joint, Los Gallos.

‘When I wanted to get back into civilization, my main thing was that I wanted to get back before 8 so I could go to the taqueria,’ he said. ‘I was craving a burrito and a taco bowl.’

The landscaper's only food source out in the woods came on the 10th day when he happened across a patch of red berries.

By this point, 300 volunteers were participating in searches.

It was later that same day that a man on a hilltop heard McClish hollering for help. Soon after, two rangers and their dog found him, and his dad got a call from the local fire chief.

‘I was beat because I’d already done a four-mile hike searching for him that day,’ Kevin McClish told DailyMail.com. 

‘When I got done, I was like, I’m done, I’m sitting my a** down and having a beer. Then Mark the fire chief called me and said you need to get up here.’

In that moment, the dad said he didn’t know if they’d actually found his son, or if he was even still alive.

McClish told DailyMail.com that he was at a staging area in the hills when his father and brother-in-law showed up.

‘My dad pops out from behind a bush, and he’s like, "What are you doing? Let’s go." I just gave him a hug. I was just really happy to see him.’

He said he’s grateful for all the people who came out to search for him, but said he would have made it home even if he wasn’t found.

‘I would have walked down that trail that night anyways because I was just really cold,’ he added. 

McClish was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for his wounds. A barber friend stopped by to chop off his clumpy, sooty hair.

But as he began his recovery, his story made global headlines as images of his rescue went viral. Locally, he became instantly famous.

At the Boulder Creek Community Church, an all-caps sign on the front lawn reads, ‘LUKE WAS FOUND! THANK YOU FIRST RESPONDERS & ALL WHO PRAYED.’

The night after he was released from the hospital, 20 friends came over to watch a newscast on him, and to join him for pizza. He suddenly found himself getting asked weighty questions about his life and beliefs, and how this experience changed him.

‘People say you must have gone in there because you’re running from something, or that you’re going out there to find something,’ he said. ‘But I was just going to find my way to work. 

And while I’m out there, I went to go look at these things I wanted to see my whole life.’

‘It was a relief to just disconnect,’ he said. ‘Nobody knew where I was, nobody was contacting me. ‘I didn’t have a cell phone, so I was not required to answer. It was just like the perfect opportunity.’