A Hiker Defied Logic By Surviving Alone In The Wilderness For 17 Days

Almost 70 years old and out of practice after months of quarantine, Harry didn’t stand much of a chance when he became disorientated on an Oregon trail. And when he failed to return home, his wife began to panic. How had an innocent fishing trip gone so wrong? And would Harry ever make it back in one piece?

As search-and-rescue groups from miles around descended on the Twin Lakes area, Harry ventured further and further into the unforgiving woods. Without water, food, or navigational equipment, his odds of survival were not looking good. But then a miracle happened, reuniting him with his family at last.

Harry’s ordeal began on May 5, 2021, when he said goodbye to his wife Stacy and left his home in the city of Roseburg. Perhaps because he lived not too far from the sprawling Umpqua National Forest, the keen fisherman was definitely the outdoorsy type. And after a long period spent in his home, he was more than ready for adventure. 

The plan, as Harry told Stacy, was simple. He would drive 60 miles east to Toketee Lake, a beauty spot teeming with wildlife. Then, after staying overnight, he would spend the next morning fishing for brown trout before making his way home — in plenty of time for Mother’s Day.

At first, Harry’s trip was everything he’d hoped it would be. Speaking to the press in July 2021, he recalled, “I caught a couple of nice [fish], kissed them on the snout, and let them go.” But before long, conditions on the lake worsened, and Harry struggled to keep his kayak balanced.

Deciding that it was too blustery to continue fishing, Harry returned to the banks of the lake. But even as he broke camp and prepared to return to Roseburg, he couldn’t fight the urge to continue his trip. Unfortunately, it was this instinct that would steer him towards danger — and almost lead him to his death.

Rather than drive straight back to Roseburg, you see, Harry took a detour to Twin Lakes, deep within the Umpqua National Forest. A scenic region crisscrossed with trails, it’s home to a basic campground — but little else in the way of civilization. In other words, the fisherman was venturing into even more remote territory than before.

“I figured, ‘Let’s take that road and see where it leads,’” Harry later explained. “It was ten miles up a pretty steep road, but I got to the trailhead.” By the time he arrived at his destination, it was already 4:00 p.m. However, Harry figured that he still had plenty of time for the short trek to the lake shore and back.

Optimistically, Harry believed that he could even fit in some fishing before returning to his car and continuing his journey home. So, he entered his details on a sign-in card and set out along the trail. But his unusually relaxed approach would almost prove to be his undoing.

Usually, Harry has said, he adheres to a strict routine when preparing for any hike, ensuring that every detail is planned out well in advance. But this time, he neglected his own rules. “I dropped all of my protocols that I would normally do. That enthusiasm — I want to get out there and enjoy. I had the need for a thrill,” he said to the press.

In his eagerness, Harry made several near-fatal errors before even leaving his car. Sure the trip wouldn’t take long, he packed alarmingly light, taking neither a map nor a compass with him into the woods. He had no water or more clothing with him, either — just the layers and hiking shoes he was already wearing.

Armed with little more than his fishing creel, Harry left the trailhead and set out towards the lake. And at first, he was blissfully unaware that he was walking into what would become a nightmare ordeal. “It was a brisk hike through deep, tall timber, and it smelled gorgeous,” he reminisced.

After a while, Harry passed a stream and found himself facing the trail markers that would point him in the right direction. But while it was May, snow still lay across the land here, obscuring the markers — and the information he needed. Even at this point, the determined fisherman was not dissuaded.

“That would have been a good spot to say, ‘This might be a good point to turn around,’” Harry later admitted. At the time, though, he was convinced that the elusive lake was near. Missing the turn that would have taken him to his destination, he began descending the hill in the wrong direction.

It was a mistake that Harry would soon come to regret. Unable to locate the lake, he realized that he had gone the wrong way and attempted to hack his way through the undergrowth back to the trail. When that didn’t work, the truth of the situation hit: he would not be getting out of the woods before nightfall.

With no cell phone signal to call for help, Harry became more and more disorientated as darkness fell. “I felt like I knew where I was at, that I had terrain awareness, but I didn’t,” he later revealed. Eventually, he built a form of shelter beneath a fallen tree and settled in for a long night — although sleep remained elusive.

The next morning, Harry found the terrain dusted with snow, making survival an even more daunting prospect. Looking around, he recognized his location as Deception Creek — a long way from the trail where any rescuers would expect him to be. And besides, Stacy had already permitted him to extend his stay, meaning his absence would not yet have raised any alarm.

“I was responsible for my own path to get out, and that motivated me to say, ‘I’ve got to do this myself,’” Harry explained to the press. Knowing water would be key to his survival, he attempted to climb down a ravine to reach the creek below. But when he tumbled down, hitting his head and injuring his hip, things went from bad to worse.

“In an instant, everything became very serious,” Harry recalled. “This was no longer a hike. I had to be mindful, stay focused on the moment. That was a realization. You know you did everything wrong, but at that point, you can’t knock yourself down. You have to stay focused and do something. Do it your best, and don’t expect more.”

For Harry, this meant relying on his wits to survive the unforgiving terrain. Making his way to a spot between two creeks, he constructed another shelter at the base of a Douglas fir tree. To help keep warm, he fashioned makeshift headgear out of his fishing creel.

Meanwhile, back in Roseburg, Stacy had grown worried about her husband. And on the evening of May 7, she expressed her concerns to the police. They took it seriously, with search-and-rescue teams mounting an extensive operation to locate the missing fisherman. Before long, they had tracked down his vehicle at Twin Lakes.

But though rescuers knew where to concentrate their efforts, Harry’s prospects still looked grim. After all, the Umpqua National Forest sprawls across more than 980,000 acres, and nobody knew the direction he had headed in. A team of over 100 volunteers began combing the region regardless, using both ground and aerial units to survey the terrain.

After five days, Harry heard the welcome sound of an airplane flying above him. But as he waved in desperation, the passing craft did not spot him amongst the forest below. Filled with renewed hope, Harry returned to camp, where he succeeded in igniting a fire using a pocket magnifier he had found in his wallet.

Yet while the warmth made things more bearable, Harry had no food. With that in mind, he knew he could not survive indefinitely in the woods. Ultimately, he abandoned his camp and made for higher ground, where his chances of being spotted would be greater. But away from the creeks, he no longer had access to water. Harry was forced to drink his own urine to stay hydrated.

By this point, Harry’s son Kaylan had joined the operation searching for his father. And on May 16 he may have listened in as rescuers located the now-abandoned camp. Though Harry was long gone, they left supplies and instructions to build a signal fire should he return. Up on the ridge, meanwhile, the situation was growing even more dire.

After falling and injuring his ankle, Harry heard a rescue helicopter overhead — but could not reach a gap in the trees to be seen. Dejected, he made another camp, resorting to eating grubs and drinking water from a tree stump he dubbed his “teapot.” He had been lost in the wilderness for nearly two weeks, but still he refused to give up hope.

“I would take one step with love, grab some love, and take another step,” Harry explained. “It centered on that love, and I tried to focus on that love. All of a sudden it became about ‘one more day.’ One more day to be here. One more day to see my wife.”

As the days ticked by, Kaylan went back to his home in Tucson, leaving Stacy to wait desperately for news — any news. The odds of Harry’s survival, she knew, were dropping with every day he remained missing. But just as hope seemed to be slipping away, something miraculous occurred out in the woods.

On May 23, Harry was facing his 17th day alone in the wilderness when he heard an incredible sound: a human voice through the trees. Almost in disbelief, he shouted back — and watched as the first person he had seen in weeks emerged. Incredibly, he had been rescued at last.

“This man, I call him ‘Guffaw Man,’ shows up, and he helps me to sit down,” Harry recounted. And before long, more people had arrived on the scene. As they tended to the injured and exhausted fisherman, they gave him Gatorade to drink — liquid that, Harry claimed, tasted like “God’s own stash of honey.”

Reportedly, one rescuer even made a joke about escargot when Harry confessed he’d eaten a snail. In the meantime, Stacy was still waiting anxiously for any information about her husband. And finally, later that day, she received the phone call she had been yearning for.

As Stacy raced to be reunited with her husband, Harry remained euphoric at having been rescued. On May 25, Lieutenant Brad O’Dell from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said, “He was very thankful to have been found. One of the searchers said, ‘If anybody wants a hug, Mr. Burleigh is handing them out for free.’”

Soon, a helicopter arrived and whisked Harry away to a hospital in Springfield, Oregon. There, he was treated in intensive care for malnutrition, hypothermia, and dehydration among other ailments. The biggest concern, though, was probably the state of his feet.

“[My feet] swelled up like two big footballs with little bitty toes on them,” Harry explained. Despite his condition, though, he was discharged from intensive care in less than two weeks. And while doctors still had to keep an eye on Harry’s health, the man himself was well enough to appear alongside his wife at a press conference a few weeks later.

“We want to thank our local community, our friends, our family for all the love and support and the energy and efforts that were brought to bear on this poor pilgrim who went out and got lost,” Harry said at the time. Later, he admitted that he was at fault for not properly preparing for the trip and placing himself at the mercy of the elements.

Still, Harry believed something positive had come out of the experience. “I left that mountaintop with something I didn’t have before,” he told the assembled members of the press. “My body was beaten beyond what it could give. My mind was stretched beyond what I thought I could do. But my life spark, that loving energy that we have inside of us, was filled.”

But despite Harry’s sheepishness, he’s far from the only person to have gotten lost during a hike in Oregon’s sprawling woods. And the nature of the region itself makes it easy to stray from the path — even if you’re an experienced hiker.

Worse still, you’re not guaranteed to be found, as thick vegetation and old-growth forest make it difficult for search-and-rescue missions to spot any clues. In Oregon, that has historically meant around 8 percent of missing people die in the woods — and 2 percent are never seen again.

That means you need to take the absolute basics for any hike — no matter how short. These include a source of light, means to make a fire, first aid supplies, and sunscreen as well as spare water, clothing, and food. With these, your chances of survival will be much higher should you, like Harry, ever wander off the path.