‘It was me and God every night’: Hunter was lost in the wilderness for nearly 3 weeks — until God told him ‘let’s go walking’
If you’ve ever been lost in the wilderness, even for a few moments, the sudden realization that you have no idea where you are — or how to get back on track — can be terrifying.
Ron Dailey had to endure that awful feeling for nearly three weeks.
‘Nobody really knew where I was.’
Dailey, 65, had packed for a half-day solo hunting trip on Oct. 13 in the Sierra National Forest, KCBS-TV reported, adding that the area is a dense wilderness in central California near Fresno.
However, a wrong turn would extend his trip by quite a bit.
“I went down this hill. I’m going, ‘Oh, God, this ain’t good,'” Dailey recalled to the station in regard to the moment he knew he was lost. “So I turned around and tried to get out. I couldn’t get out.”
A storm hit that evening and left two feet of snow on top of his broken-down truck and all around him, Dailey recalled to KCBS, adding that he thought, “Oh, man, I’m in trouble.”
His family contacted the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office when he didn’t return as planned, and a massive search was under way from the air and on land, the station said.
KCBS said the rescue effort eventually stretched across multiple counties and required responders to look for Dailey in rugged terrain.
Soon Dailey’s survival instincts kicked in, the station said, adding that he had 14 bottles of water and about 900 calories’ worth of food, all of which he tried to ration for as long as possible.
But eventually his food and water ran out, and Dailey recalled to KCBS that he “didn’t know if rescue was gonna come” because “nobody really knew where I was.”
Well, he did have a most important companion, it turns out.
“It was me and God every night,” Dailey told the station in regard to how prayer and his Christian faith helped him when things looked bleakest.
He shared with KCBS that soon “God woke me up at 6:45 Saturday morning. He goes, ‘Ron, get your boots on. Let’s go walking.'”
With that, Dailey abandoned his truck and estimated that he walked about 10 to 12 miles through the wilderness, the station said, stopping and sitting down often due to the altitude. He reportedly fell several times and lost his phone.
KCBS said finally three rescuers appeared.
“The Christian community just pulled together and kept praying and praying and praying,” Dailey recounted to the station. “They wouldn’t let me die. Neither would God.”
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