Thankfully, he was found safe and is now reunited with his family, but how was he able to overcome the elements?
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Family members cried as they were reunited with the smiling boy in the bright purple T-shirt at about 3 p.m.
“If I didn’t have that (jacket) I wouldn’t be able to get water and keep warm”, said Bradley.
About 80 searchers, an airplane and a helicopter are combing the forested terrain.
The boy was cold and hungry but otherwise healthy when he was picked up on Monday afternoon.
“He seems unfazed by it, he’s in good condition”.
That brought laughter from family and friends who were listening.
The family had been camping near Paul Lake above Paradise Park Campground, according to the Daily Mail.
Uintah County Sheriff’s Corporal Brian Fletcher told the Salt Lake Tribune that trained personnel from neighboring counties as well as the Ute Indian Tribe are traveling the area on ATV’s searching for the boy.
Malachi Bradley survived by curling up between some rocks as temperatures as dipped into the upper 30s overnight, Uintah County Sheriff Vance Norton said.
“It definitely made the list of my favorite moments of all time”, his mother Molly Chrisman said of the emotional reunion.
Mom is just happy she has a happy story to tell.
Malachi Bradley smiles up to his brother Levi as he is reunited with his family Monday, August 24, 2015, after being lost in the High Uintas.
“It was absolute exhilaration”.
Malachi was in high spirits after seeing his family Monday.
Asked by a reporter if he had been scared, Malachi replied: “Not really”.
“I hiked like literally 30 miles”, he said.
Malachi also said he saw multiple helicopters pass by his location in the open before he was eventually spotted. Bradley said both the helicopter and fixed wing flew past him early in the day. A speaker system also broadcasted calls to the boy, Norton said.
Local resident Kevin Bardsley, whose 12-year-old son has never been found after he vanished in the region in 2004, said it is easy to get lost in the area, and sudden changes in weather can be unsafe. And they were burying themselves in leafs, they were building lean-tos. “They were doing all the things you’d want them to do if you were lost”.
“It was so exciting”, she said. “I just really wanted to get back”.
“The lake didn’t have mushrooms and I chose to turn”, he said.
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“As scary as it was, it wasn’t to him”, Mathews said.
