Man survives for 5 days in Sierra without food
By Siemny Chhuon, KXTV
WEST SACRAMENTO – A West Sacramento man was rescued after being missing for five days in the wilderness.
Mike Vilhauer, 58, is now in the comfort of his own home. It’s a place, at one point, he didn’t think he’d see again.
“I started thinking, ‘I’m going to be here and this is going to be it,'” Vilhauer recalled.
He was fishing alone last Wednesday at Lower Sunset Lake in Alpine County when he went looking for bait. He intended to go on a quick hike – 15 or 30 minutes at the most. But then he got lost from his campsite.
Vilhauer went five days without food.
“I did my own version of survivor man, the idiots version,” Vilhauer said. “Drinking out of puddles, dried stream beds.”