A Manitoba camper is crediting skills he learned watching a reality TV show with helping him survive three days lost in the woods.

Chris Cloutier, 24, became separated from his two friends after an argument Saturday night. On Sunday morning, there was no sign of his friends so he started walking.

"There was nothing but forest for miles and miles and miles and that's when I realized that I was basically in trouble and I was going to have to start survival mode," Cloutier told CTV Winnipeg. However, he conceded it probably would have been best to stay at the campsite.

So he began walking along the shore of Shoe Lake in Nopiming Park, a bag of all-dressed chips, a jug of orange juice and two lighters in hand. He thought he'd quickly be able to find the spot where his friends parked, but he failed to find the car and was lost.

Luckily, he had picked up some skills from watching the TV show “Survivorman,” in which host and Canadian survival expert Les Stroud uses his skills to survive seven or 10 days in remote locations with no food, water or other equipment.

"I watch ‘Survivorman’ all the time," Cloutier said. "It really did help me a lot when I was out there."

He rationed his chips, drank the juice and when that ran out he used the bottle to collect rain water and drink that. Unlike Stroud in the show, Cloutier didn't have to resort to catching and eating animals.

"I looked at a frog a couple times, but I didn't want it to come to that," he said.

Cloutier used the lighters to make fires for warmth and create smoke signals.

He would wake up at dawn and walk all day. On the third day of walking he hurt his knee climbing rocks, but was able to limpalong until he found a trail that led to a road. A Winnipeg man driving by picked him up.

"It was crazy," he said. "I still can't believe I'm sitting here."

This isn't the first time Stroud has been credited with helping someone survive in the wilderness. On New Year's Eve 2010, 14-year-old Jake Denham found himself stranded after a day of skiing in Oregon. He survived about nine hours in freezing temperatures after building a snow cave to stay warm.

As for Cloutier, he has a strained muscle in his knee and is still walking with a limp. He still has some chip crumbs in the bag, which he plans to keep as a souvenir, but said, "I'll never eat them (all-dressed chips) again."

With files from CTV Winnipeg’s Alesia Fieldberg