‘Not knowing is so hard.’ Hiker rescued after 5 days without food in California forest

A hiker was rescued from a canyon in a California forest after going missing for five days without food and little water, officials said.

George “Dave” Null, 58, went missing in the Angeles National Forest May 15, according to a news release from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. It took a massive search effort, involving at least five agencies, to find him, the sheriff’s department said.

“We didn’t know for days,” Rebecca Latta, Null’s sister, told CBSLA. “Not knowing is so hard.”

Rescue crews started searching day and night on the ground Saturday.

Null was spotted at creek base Wednesday evening while a helicopter crew searched Bear Creek in the canyon east of Triple Rock, according to the Montrose Search and Rescue Team.

Null — who got lost in an area where trailmarkers had been burned by the Bobcat Fire — had not eaten since the day he went missing, using survival skills he learned in the Eagle Scouts and as an experienced hiker to find clean drinking water, Latta told the TV station.

“Since then, the Forestry Service has closed these areas and recommended hikers don’t go in them so that way nature can heal, as well as the trails can be fixed and the signs can be replanted,” Sgt. John Gilbert, a spokesperson with the sheriff’s department, told CBSLA.

Once rescuers hoisted him down to the ground and assessed his injuries, Null only had minor scratches from his time missing in the wilderness, the sheriff’s department said.

“He gave me a huge hug,” Latta said, according to NBC News. “I think he’s so exhausted that I really think he doesn’t have a lot of words right now and he’s a little bit delirious after five days of wandering around in the forest.”

This story was originally published May 20, 2021 at 2:34 PM with the headline "‘Not knowing is so hard.’ Hiker rescued after 5 days without food in California forest."