HOMEWOOD, Calif. – Warren Elliott is now reunited with his family after going missing for six days in the Tahoe wilderness. Cheers and claps greeted the helicopter that touched down bringing Elliott to Homewood after he had been found.

He was seen hugging his family in the now tattered and torn blue t-shirt he was last seen in. “Thank you, thank you,” he says to onlookers and rescuers while wiping his eyes.

“It brought tears to our eyes to see the reunion,” Placer County Sgt. Sage Bourassa said, noting his family thought he might not make it out alive.

---

---

Elliott went missing on Friday, July 19, after leaving for a hike between 2-3 p.m, from a group conducting trail rehab ahead of the Jeep Jamboree.

He told the sheriff’s office that he is familiar with the area, but says he began walking in the wrong direction when he decided to walk back to the area they were camping in Rubicon Springs.

---

---

After days of 10 agencies from across the state searching, rallying between 50-100 searchers each day, National Guard helicopters, dog teams, and drone operators, Elliott was found by a fisherman.

Elliott had flagged the fisherman down at Hell Hole Reservoir Wednesday morning, July 24.

That’s about 9 miles as the crow flies from where he was last seen near Cadillac Hill, but officers suspect he probably walked close to 30 or 40 miles zigzagging. He had gone up a large mountain and back down the other side.

The fisherman used a satellite radio to notify the sheriff’s office of Elliott’s location. A California Highway Patrol helicopter extracted him and transported him to the command post at Homewood Mountain Resort.

Bourassa said Elliott refused medical treatment and just wanted food and water at Homewood. That’s where he ate granola bars, fruit, grapes, a sandwich and drank water and juice. It was the most he had eaten in six days.

Having left for the hike with no food, Elliott found berries to eat and drank from a river. “We’re very impressed by him,” Bourassa said and added they were glad he didn’t give up. “That’s a lot of days to go without food.”

Law enforcement recommends you stay in one place if you find yourself lost. This makes it easier for them to find you. In this case, Elliott had moved quickly and moved outside the perimeter. It’s reported he kept moving because he didn’t think anyone was looking for him.

Bourassa said, “He wondered if he could get through but his mindset was to make it through.”

Editor’s note: Tahoe Daily Tribune reporter Brenna O’Boyle contributed to this article.