A hiker found alive after she went missing for nearly three weeks credits her survival to being an experienced forager and stumbling across a cabin.
Tiffany Slaton joined her parents at the Fresno County Sheriff's Office on Thursday to share her story of being lost in the Sierra and surviving multiple snowstorms.
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WATCH HERE"I had pretty much fallen off of a cliff trying to go on vacation for the first time," Slaton said. "I may never do a real vacation longer than three days ever again."
Slaton, who was wearing sunglasses because of the eye damage she suffered from days in the snow, was on a three-day hiking trip in the Sierra Nevada in Fresno County. But at some point she fell off a cliff and was knocked unconscious for two hours.
"I eventually got mad at my GPS and decided to ask, 'Well, where the nearest Starbucks?'" Slaton said of her device unable to call 911 or activate GPS.
Slaton then started hiking north to "get back to civilization" and during a snowstorm stumbled upon the Vermillion Resort and found an unlocked cabin.
The resort owner has said he leaves the doors unlocked for cases like this.
"When the door opened and I saw the best sleeping bag I'd ever seen in the world, I wasn't necessarily thinking I was rescued, I was thinking it's a dry bed," Slaton said.
Slaton said she is an experienced forager and found plants to eat to survive. She also melted snow to make pine needle tea to get vitamins and minerals.
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SIGN UP "I'm pretty good at foraging and nature is quite terrifying, so usually once you start finding things that are scary for you, you do your best to keep moving and get over it," Slaton said. "And because of the mountains, I literally got over quite a few of them."
Slaton was reported missing on April 20.
The Fresno County Sheriff's Office launched a search covering nearly 600 square miles, but heavy snow blocked many roads.
The route to the resort was plowed this week and that is when the owner found Slaton in a cabin.
Slaton said she is a traveling dialysis technician and archery coach, and plans to head back to Georgia with her parents to recover. She hopes this was her last long adventure outdoors.
