COPAKE, N.Y. (AP) — Authorities say a 28-year-old man tells investigators he intentionally stayed in the woods when he went missing and spent nearly two days in rugged terrain along the New York-Massachusetts border.

The Columbia County Sheriff’s office says officials will now consider criminal charges and trying to recover the cost of their search for Kyle Pember of Northborough, Mass.

Pember was hiking with his father Monday afternoon when the two men got separated. Police launched air and ground searches but didn’t find any sign of Pember until he made a cell phone call late Tuesday night saying he was lost, cold and scared.

He was rescued uninjured around 4 a.m. Wednesday in the Taconic State Park, 40 miles southeast of Albany.

Authorities aren’t available to say why he stayed in the woods.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.