BBM: IF Bryce is still in the area (or even was for a while), there is a campground nearby (at Castaic Lagoon, the lower lake), so water is available. Food (if you aren't squeamish) can easily be scavenged from trash receptacles, enough to last a week if you pick correctly. I watched a kid (might have been homeless, but I don't know) do this at a park where one of the adults in our group had purchased a sandwich in a plastic container, ate only half, closed the container and threw it in the trash can. Other trash got thrown on top of it, but being in a plastic container, the other half of the sandwich looked pristine, especially to a hungry kid. It's amazing how much edible food gets thrown away. (Water bottles, too)
My point is that there is food and water available currently, so he could survive in the area, which makes "hiding out" still viable for a possibility. It also makes dazed, wandering and hiding out elsewhere (fast food restaurants all over) viable, depending on what he is wearing, because the average person doesn't look at the homeless, they usually try to look away. Those shoes, though. They are pretty distinctive. I'd notice those even before his hair color.
