The survival of two sisters aged five and eight for 44 hours in the rugged Northern California wilderness is being hailed as a “miracle.”
Leia and Caroline Carrico set off on their adventure on Friday, leaving their home in the small community of Benbow armed with some granola bars and wearing pink wellington boots.
The sisters had taken part in survival training provided by their youth club – something Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said contributed to being found “safe and sound.”
The little girls were found dehydrated and cold but in good spirits on Sunday, about one and a half miles from their home. According to US media, they got lost after straying from a deer trail and drank fresh water using leaves.
“This is an absolute miracle,” Honsal added. “This is rugged territory, this is an extreme environment. How they were out there for 44 hours is pretty amazing.”
A picture of one of the girls posted by the sheriff’s office and already being widely shared on social media shows her wearing pink rubber boots, dirty jeans, a long pink shirt and a woollen cap. She is standing while a firefighter kneels down and talks to her.
One person commented that “she looks like a seasoned outdoor gal” while another said, “those little adventurers will sure have a story to tell!”
Honsal said the girls were given fresh warm clothes, water and food and were being assessed.
“A lot of us didn’t get any sleep the last 48 hours or so,” Honsal said. “To have a positive outcome like this is just absolutely amazing ... These girls definitely have a survival story to tell.”
He said the firefighters who found the girls had followed their boot prints. The firefighters were part of a massive search of a vast and rugged rural area that included a dozen agencies, including the National Guard, helicopters and tracking dogs.
Rescuers were hopeful about finding the girls Saturday after they came across prints from their boots and wrappers from granola bars, Lt Mike Fridley said.
“The wrappers showed us a direction from where they started to where the wrappers ended up at,” Fridley said.
Fridley said he was the one who got to call the girls’ mother and tell them her daughters were alive.
“She melted on the phone,” he said.