A man lost in Nopiming Park for three days was found with minor injuries.

Christopher Cloutier's family has a cabin near Nopiming Park. He and friends took a boat across Shoe Lake to a campsite on the weekend.

It was dark when they got there, and not long after that, he got lost in the woods.

Cloutier walked for three days, and spent three nights in the wild.

“Last weekend wasn't exactly the greatest weather to be lost without food or shelter,” said Staff Sgt. Greg Gerbrandt from Lac du Bonnet RCMP.

The 24-year-old Winnipeg man went missing Saturday, after getting separated from his camping group near Shoe Lake in Nopiming Provincial Park.

Search parties hit the ground, the water and the air to find him.

The owner of a gas station, Luc Arcouette, couldn't believe it when he saw the man walk in Tuesday afternoon.

“Just the way he walked, he was limping - shoes all torn. Grubby…so I (ask), ‘You're not the guy who was in the bush for two to three days?’ And he says, ‘Yep.’”

Arcouette said a Winnipeg motorist likely saved Cloutier’s life and stopped to help him on Translicence Road.

“Not too many people drive that road. It's a dirt road. And it just so happened, he drove by and he was there. I mean a few minutes and he would have been past him, and he would have never got out,” said Arcouette.

RCMP said Cloutier had travelled west around the lake - the opposite direction of the nearest highway.

He walked five miles through terrain so rough that RCMP and searchers had ruled it out.

“The tangle of brush and swamps that he'd have to traverse to get to where he was picked up (is) pretty amazing,” said Gerbrandt.

Cloutier posted a photo of torn up clothes and a thank you on his Facebook page to everyone who took part in the search.

"Words can't describe how I feel for everyone that was thinking about me. I'm home and safe,” he wrote.

He was taken to Pinawa Hospital as a precaution.

Staff said he left Wednesday in stable condition.

Arcouette said Cloutier told him he'd fallen and hurt his knee while in the woods.

RCMP said that makes this happy ending even more amazing.

“If you get injured or hurt and you don't have the ability to walk any longer, then you're in serious trouble,” said Gerbrandt.

Cloutier had two lighters to start fires while he was lost. RCMP said he drank river water and had some bacon as a snack.

Experts say people heading into the woods should always go prepared. Have an ability to make a fire, have a compass and a map. Stay with your gear and equipment.

Let people know where you're going. RCMP said in this case, Cloutier had let his dad know he was going camping but didn't say where exactly.

Friends knew where so searches had a place to start.