Sisters, 5, and 8, share how they survived two nights in the woods
HUMBOLDT COUNTY, CAlif. (KTVU) - The two Humboldt County sisters who survived 44 hours in the woods shared their story of survival Monday.
"We were pretty hungry. Our bellies grumbled the whole night," said 8-year-old Leia Carrico. "We found shelter, a tree branch, close to the ground, and we had my sister's rain jacket to keep us warm."
She said of her 5-year-old sister Caroline, "My sister cried the whole night, so I told her to think happy thoughts of our family, and I kept watch for most of the night.
Caroline said, "I thought of going to the park with mommy and daddy, and I thought of going to the ocean. I though everything that I remembered, but it didn't work."
Even though they were scared, the sisters kept their wits about them during their wayward sojourn.
They stayed together, afraid that bears would get them as they braved the 38-degree weather and ate leaves and granola bars.
The girls' parents say their daughters had learned basic wilderness and outdoor skills through the 4-H organization. But they said they feared the worst as minutes turned to hours, and hours turned to days.
"Every emotion you could think of," said their father Travis Carrico. "Anywhere from it just being a dream to huddling up in a ball and bawling my eyes out."
Their mother Misty Carrico said, "I'm trying not to punish them, really hard, trying not to, because they did the right thing. I mean, they might have wandered off, but they stuck together and they pulled themselves through. They saved each other. So, I'm the proudest mom. I raised superheroes."
Those girls were found alive and well Sunday after a massive search that included helicopters and tracking dogs.
Their mother joked that she might microchip her daughters or attach them to the GPS carabiners that she bought from Amazon Prime right after they went missing.