Wednesday, November 5, 2025 - A hunter who disappeared during a trip through a national forest in California was found alive but emaciated after 20 days through high-altitude terrain where he prayed for a miracle once his legs started to give out.
Ron Dailey, 65, was reported missing on Oct. 13 when he
didn’t return from a deer hunting trip near Shaver Lake, located in the heart
of the Sierra National Forest.
Weeks of silence ensued as complete strangers, including
the Fresno County Search and Rescue Posse, organized searches to try and
locate Dailey.
Dailey’s wife, Glenda, said their family never stopped
praying for his safe return as she reposted his missing person flyer
on Facebook every single day since he vanished.
Their pleas were finally answered on Nov. 1, 20 days since
anyone had last heard from Dailey.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office announced that he
was found safe, although malnourished and battered, on the park’s Swamp Lake
trail, roughly 20 miles away from his original hunting site.
Glenda wrote that Dailey was hospitalized and being pumped
“with fluids” to bring “his color” back, but promised that he would be ready to
share his story once he was rested.
Dailey said that he originally drove up the Swamp Lake trail
in his truck, a 2002 Silver Dodge Dakota, and safely reached the top, where he
paused to snack on several strips of jerky and a few nuts, according to a
recording obtained by ABC News.
From there, he drove down a “jeep road” when his truck hit a
snag. He tried to turn around, but couldn’t, so he continued further down the
trail, he said in the recording.
“I don’t know why, but I did,” Dailey admitted.
He eventually reached a “rocky plateau” and camped out there
for several days. He followed the trail signs, but the terrain still tore up
his truck, so he picked it apart and removed the passenger seat entirely so
that he still had a place to rest, even though he said it was “very
uncomfortable.”
Realizing his truck couldn’t be salvaged, Dailey eventually
abandoned it and trekked back down the trail on foot.
But the trail was grueling. The altitude was just over
10,000 feet, which he said forced him to stop every hundred yards to catch his
breath. Still, he pressed on.
“This is it, Ron, you either try to get out or you sit here
and di£,” Dailey recounted telling himself, according to the recording.
Somewhere along the way, Dailey lost his cellphone. As he
grew more tired, he also started to stumble more frequently, but would still
stop and pray.
“You gotta send somebody up here to me. I can hardly walk
anymore,” Dailey said, choking back tears in the recording.
Not long after, Dailey said he spotted a pair of headlights
shining through the woods and he scrambled to flag down the driver.
He all but collapsed into his rescuers’ arms and “started
hugging them and praying,” according to the recording.
The hunters who found him quickly gave him their food and
water as Dailey confessed he hadn’t eaten in six days.
Glenda noted that she specifically plans to meet the men
responsible for Dailey’s safe return, but was quick to laud all the others who
worked tirelessly to find Dailey with equal praise.
“There are so many family members, friends and people we do
not even know that were looking and we are so thankful to all of you! God still
does miracles, and we have just been shown one,” Glenda wrote.
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