ROME, Maine: He would meditate on an overturned bucket while staring up at the sky and knew all the eagles that nested nearby.

The only words he had spoken to another person in 27 years were when he said "Hi, how are you" to a man he met on a trail, a spokesman for the Maine wildlife department said. That was in the 1990s.

But despite nearly three decades of seclusion in the woods, Christopher Knight also had a taste for the finer things in life, US authorities said on Thursday, after dismantling the hermit's lair in Maine.

In the 47-year-old's camp they recovered high-end sleeping bags and a new tent. He was wearing new shoes and gloves, all believed stolen, when authorities arrested him after he tripped a surveillance sensor at a camp last week.