A California man who spent eight days lost in the wildness has been recovered after claiming to having survived on pine nuts alone.
Daniel Brian Thompson of Davis had embarked on a solo camping trip in northern California when his rental car skidded off a gravel road and down an embankment.
No one knew where he was and his cell phone service wasn't connecting leaving the 25-year-old unable to call for help.
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Lost: Thompson went on a solo hiking trip from his home in Davis, California but didn't tell friends or family where he was headed when he crashed his rental car in the wilderness
'He was lost wandering for seven days,' Thompson's father Brian Thompson told the Davis Enterprise newspaper after his son's recovery on Sunday.
It was after Thompson failed to show up to work on Monday without a call to his employer of two and a half years that a missing person report was filed.
'It’s very uncharacteristic of him to have missed work like that and not have notified them at all,' his father told Fox40.
Nourishment: Thompson told authorities he relied on pine nuts collected from pine cones to survive over the last eight days
But there were other oddities too police found.
'Saturday, a friend had texted him an invite and received a response saying he’s on his way and then he never showed up,' Lt. Paul Doroshov of Davis P.D. told FOX40.
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His friends and family became worried, hanging fliers in both the Davis and Sacramento area that featured his photo. Days went by without word.
'My own belief was that he was fine, it was just waiting and waiting and waiting to be able to hear that for sure,' Mr Thompson said.
On Saturday, one week after his friends heard word from him, a man hunting wild pigs in Lake County, north of the San Francisco Bay area, spotted a vehicle lodged about 100 yards off the road.
It was a ZipCar, like one rented by Thompson. Inside there was a wallet and driver's license tucked in the glove compartment.
The man snapped photos of the car, marked its GPS coordinates and had his girlfriend Google the man's ID on her cell phone once back at his camp.
Found: One week after his friends last heard word from him, a man hunting wild pigs in Lake County spotted a vehicle lodged about 100 yards off the road leading to his discovery on Sunday
It was there they learned the driver of that car was missing.
Thompson was found the next day, telling police he had set off on foot for help before becoming lost.
He told his father it was the pine nuts that kept him alive.
'He may never want to eat them again,' his father remarked.
Daniel Thompson emphasized similar feelings on his Facebook page later, according to the Davis Enterprise.
'Y'all, A: Tell people when you camp by yourself. B: Drive carefully on gravel. C: Learn edible plants in your area, because when you find youself lost on BLM land without a car, cellphone, or kit, runoff and pine nuts make a [lousy] diet.'