California Hiker Breaks Fast With a Medevac

The revelation was not entirely what he expected.

A Berkeley man who hiked into the Los Padres National Forest to conduct a multi-day fast found himself too emaciated eight days later to hike out and was rescued Tuesday by the Monterey County Sheriff's Department.

Backpackers encountering Gerald Horne 12 miles into the backcountry hiked to the trailhead to alert authorities. Rescue team members had to be lowered to the hiker via helicopter. They then airlifted him out of the forest to a waiting ambulance.

In an interview Wednesday from his hospital bed , Horne, 38, said he had gone to the wilderness to fast and "reflect on who I am and what I have to do to move forward."

He had recently quit his job with New York Life Insurance and abandoned efforts to earn a marketing degree. He saw his hike and fast, he said, as a "way back to my roots and creative intelligence."

"I'm depleted in energy, but it was a spiritual fast," Horne said by phone from the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. "I accomplished what I went to do."

Authorities added that it almost cost his life.

Horne -- who goes by "Benu," the Egyptian word, he said, for "the Phoenix" -- is by his own admission an inexperienced backpacker. He took a queen-sized air bed, a "giant" tent, pillow, other heavy or bulky equipment and his dog.

On June 28, his second day out, he ran into hikers who told him he didn't look so good. On Saturday, Day 5, other backpackers staying at Sykes Camp came to his aid. But by then, sapped by heat and exhausted from the fast, he couldn't keep food or fluids down.

By the time rescuers rappelled down on the eighth day, Horne had gone almost four days without water, about the body's limit for dehydration, said Monterey County Sheriff's Sgt. Joe Moses.

"He was not in immediate danger, but much longer and he would have (been)," Moses said.

Backpackers stayed behind to care for Horne's dog and equipment.

Those undertaking extended fasts should seek regular monitoring, including physical examinations and weekly blood tests, according to a Web article by Dr. Elson Haas, founder of the Preventive Medical Center of Marin in San Rafael and author of "Staying Healthy with Nutrition."

Long fasts may reduce blood protein levels and will drop blood fat levels, Haas wrote. They can also spike uric acid levels as the body scavenges protein, resulting in painful joint inflammation and potential kidney damage.

Horne, Berkeley born and raised, said the experience offered clarity. He's not sure exactly what he wants to do next, but he'd like to finish his degree and perhaps return to poetry slams and hip-hop, which he used to do and teach at Berkeley's New Age Academy.

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