Man survives 20 days stranded in California wilderness: “It was me and God every night”

A California man is telling a miraculous survival story after disappearing for nearly three weeks in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

“It was me and God every night,” Ron Dailey, 65, told “CBS Mornings,” speaking about how he leaned on his faith while stranded in the sprawling mountain range in harsh conditions and without much sustenance.  

Dailey had packed for a half-day hunting trip on Oct. 13 in the Sierra National Forest, which is a dense wilderness area in central California near the city of Fresno, CBS News Los Angeles reported. When he didn’t return home as planned, Dailey’s family contacted the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office and triggered a massive search operation aerially and on land. According to the station, the operation eventually stretched across multiple counties and tasked responders with locating the missing hunter in rugged terrain.

Although Dailey’s hunting trip was meant to be brief, a wrong turn, a snowstorm and a broken truck left him alone and trapped in the wilderness, where he ultimately survived for about 20 days. 

“I went down this hill, I’m going, ‘Oh God, this ain’t good,'” Dailey said of the moment he initially lost his way in the forest. “So, I turned around and tried to get out. I couldn’t get out.”

Then a winter storm hit that evening. About two feet of snow had fallen on top of his truck and all around him, Dailey recalled. At that point, the hunter thought, “Oh man, I’m in trouble,” he told “CBS Mornings.”

Then, Dailey’s survival instincts kicked in. He had 14 bottles of water and about 900 calories worth of food with him, which he tried to ration for as long as he could. Eventually, the supply ran out, and Dailey said he “didn’t know if rescue was gonna come” because “nobody really knew where I was.”

When he was finally rescued, Dailey said: “God woke me up at 6:45 Saturday morning. He goes, ‘Ron, get your boots on. Let’s go walking.'”

He walked what he thought was about 10 or 12 miles through the wilderness, stopping frequently to sit down because of the altitude. That’s when three rescuers appeared. 

“The Christian community just pulled together and kept praying and praying and praying,” said Dailey. “They wouldn’t let me die. Neither would God.”