A hiker who was stranded for three days on a small B.C. island after falling and crushing his pelvis told reporters Tuesday that thoughts of his family and friends helped him through his ordeal.
Jordan Nicurity, 26, of Regina, was hiking and climbing on Hornby Island when a chunk of sandstone broke off in his hand.
Nicurity fell six metres and shattered his pelvis and injured his foot.
"I heard some ugly crunching noises coming from my hips, but I was able to wiggle my toes," he recalled.
But he could barely move. And he was alone and without food or water.
There was only a mouthful of tea in his thermos.
"When I was crawling through this meadow, all the rain water's on the grass, so I was licking as much of that -- the bigger-looking drops that I could find."
Desperate, the photographer dragged himself along trails. He spent nights on the beach in pouring rain.
But he never gave up.
"I thought about my family and my friends and how upset I'd be if something happened to them," he said.
On the third day, he mustered enough energy to pull himself up a hill -- and came across a group of hikers.
At first the hikers thought they heard eagles -- but they were Nicurity's cries for help.
"As soon as I saw them I was so relieved," he said.
Nicurity has a bit of a stubborn streak and determination, his father said Tuesday.
"For me I probably would've rolled over on the second day," Grant Nicurity said.
Doctors say it'll probably take six months for him to recover.
Nicurity, it seems, never lost his sense of humour.
"I'm here to formally announce I'm taking myself out of consideration for the 2010 hockey team," he said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's St. John Alexander
