Corbin man missing for nearly five days in 2004, but was found alive

Whitley County emergency officials say one thing that continues to give them hope of finding a 46-year-old missing deer hunter lost in the woods near Cumberland Falls is the fact that two years ago a missing 72-year-old squirrel hunter managed to survive lost in the woods for four and a half days before being rescued.
James Rains of Corbin said afterwards that he never doubted that he would find his way to safety after becoming lost while hunting near the Daniel Boone National Forest in early October 2004.
Rains said he slept underneath a cliff face during his four days in the woods and drank rainwater he captured in his thermos as it ran down the rocks. He said he ate nothing the entire time.
“Water is what you really need,” he said in an interview two years ago with a News Journal reporter. “That’s all I did was drink water.”
He wandered through ravines, thick briar patches and navigated rocky terrain trying to find his way out of the woods. He said he tried to get close to Laurel Lake several times, but was thwarted by high cliffs and large, slick boulders.
He was finally discovered by a fisherman when he yelled at a passing boat in a cove about four miles from his truck, and one of the fishermen, Ronnie Cornett, alerted authorities that he was about 100 feet above the water sitting on a cliff.