Lost Hiker Survives Two Chilly Nights in Alaska's Chugach State Park

When John Carlos Mann finally stumbled out of the woods near Bird Creek on Sunday night, he had been lost in Chugach State Park for two days and two cold nights, growing colder and more tired as he searched for someone to help him.

Mann had reached the Seward Highway, near Mile 101, after sliding down a glacier, following a river and, later, walking along ATV tracks. He reached a residential area of Bird Creek, a community along the Seward Highway south of Anchorage, but no one emerged from the homes there to answer his cries for help. He flagged down cars on the highway, but no one stopped.

"I was probably walking like a drunk person," Mann said Monday.

Mann made it to a local business, and employees told him to leave, he said. "This is private property," he said they told him. They told him to go to a nearby gas station, but that business was closed.

READ MORE AT ALASKA DISPATCH NEWS