Hikers Survived 4 Days Without Food And Water In Everglades

HOMESTEAD, FL — First responders located two hikers in Big Cypress National Preserve late Friday morning after they had apparently been lost for four days without food or water. The Collier County Sheriff's Office, which assisted in the search, told Patch that the hikers were first reported lost earlier in the day. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission participated in the search.

The hikers were later identified as Thomas James Rieker and Ryan Edwards Crowder. Neither man was injured.

"We've just been informed by the National Park Service ... that they’ve located the hikers," Kristi Lester of the Collier Sheriff's Office told Patch late Friday morning. "They are going to be bringing the hikers out of the area near the 63 mile marker rest area on I-75."

Lt. Felipe Lay of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue told Patch that the two hikers in their twenties were spotted by a Miami-Dade helicopter crew.

"Apparently these guys have a YouTube channel. These are YouTubers that go on these hiking expeditions," he said. "Apparently they were four days without water and food."

He said that one of the rescuers was lowered out of the helicopter to reach the hikers. Watch dramatic video of one of the hikers being hoisted into the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue chopper below.

Watch as the hikers describe their ordeal below:

Speaking in a video interview with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, Rieker and Crowder recalled setting off on Saturday from a Florida City hotel. They hitchhiked and hiked to the southernmost entry point of Big Cypress National Preserve and planned to stay only about three days.

"We were constantly having to go around alligators and water moccasins that were in the middle of the trail and got some pretty good footage of them but too bad our camera is toast from the water," Rieker lamented.

"One of the most difficult moments I think that we both faced was the last two days. There was about a 10-mile stretch of ankle to knee-deep water the entire time," added Crowder.

Their YouTube channel is called Explorida.

A spokesperson for the National Park Service told Patch that the hikers called 9-1-1. She said that the hikers were lost in Big Cypress National Preserve not far from Everglades National Park.

"Big Cypress National Preserve provided two rangers with a swamp buggy from I-75 to assist with the search and successful rescue of two hikers," the spokesperson explained.

Everglades National Park spans 1.5 million acres in three South Florida counties: Monroe, Miami-Dade and Collier. Nearby Big Cypress protects more than 729,000 acres of the Big Cypress Swamp and contains a mix of tropical and temperate plant communities that are home to a diversity of wildlife, including the Florida panther.

Watch the dramatic rescue of one of the hikers:

Lost hiker Ryan Edwards Crowder is hoisted into a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue helicopter on Friday. Image and video courtesy Miami-Dade Fire Rescue.