Missing California hiker found safe in Big Basin State Park

(NewsNation) – Nine days after a hike gone wrong, 34-year-old Lukas McClish was found safe in California's Big Basin State Park and reunited with his family. A photographer captured it all.

Emergency photographer Steve Kuehl was on scene when responding agencies located McClish after more than a week of searching.

“It was obviously a very emotional and raw moment for everyone. Because in that moment, everyone present got to see a mother see her son alive for the first time in almost weeks, without knowing what had happened to them,” Kuehl said. “So it was a powerful moment.”

Kuehl has known McClish's family for years and has witnessed the impact of his disappearance on those close to him.

“His dad is a retired fire chief for the local districts, and from what I've heard, he pretty much never stopped hiking,” he said. “He had been up for days, hiking for days, looking in every part of this area and around our district.”

While fire damage altered the park's landscape and erased landmarks with which McClish had become familiar, leading to its demise, the fires also helped save it.

The man who called and reported McClish's screams — the “unsung hero” of the incident, according to Kuehl — was a retired firefighter with a good ear.

“[His] “The house burned down and the CZU fire started here about four years ago,” Kuehl said. “And with all the foliage cleared in the canyon below his house, he could hear Lucas calling for help.”

Rescue agencies said McClish had no major injuries when he was found.