PHOENIX (KPNX) - An Arizona man is sharing his story of survival after being stranded in the rugged wilderness of Lake Pleasant for two days.
It all started when Mick Ohman drove up to the little mountain town of Crown King on Thursday, July 27. He decided to take the scenic route back to his home in Phoenix. But the road ended up being more of a rugged trail filled with ravines and boulders not meant for his two-wheel-drive Honda CR-V.
"It was bouncing bad and all of a sudden my engine disengaged. I couldn't go forward and couldn't go backwards," said Ohman.
Ohman had destroyed his transmission. He was stranded about 16 miles south of Crown King with no cell phone reception and a cooler filled with just one bottle of water, two beers and bagel chips.
All in triple-digit temperatures under a blazing Arizona summer sun.
"It got to the point that I couldn't swallow and my throat would stick together. I was forced to drink my own urine at this point, in order to swallow," said Ohman.
Despite all that, Ohman mustered the strength to make his version of an SOS.
He put his spare tire on his car's windshield and created a big "H" out of rocks, hoping a helicopter or plane owuld fly over and see he needed help. He also recorded a message for his sisters, Mitsy and Mindy.
"If you find this phone and I didn't do so well, please tell my sisters how much I love them," Ohman said in the video.
"That was very emotional for me. And I was trying to keep my head about me the whole time, but when I heard myself starting to say that, I really choked up," said Ohman. When asked if he thought that was the end, Ohman said, "oh, absolutely."
But it wasn't. the next day, 24 hours after Ohman got stuck, he said he found a stream of water that gave him energy.
"The water...was crystal clear it was so refreshing," he said.
But it didn't get him any closer to getting rescued. Saturday morning, after spending two nights insdie his CR-V, Ohman set out to find help, hoping to hike to civilization. then he heard the sound of a savior in Troy Haverland.
Haverland was trail-riding on his dirt bike.
A week later, Ohman has healed and is sharing his survival story, thankful it didn't have a different ending.