BURKE COUNTY, N.C. -- Two lost hikers who spent the night in freezing temperatures were found after a massive search in Burke County.

Rescuers found the pair near the lower falls in the Upper Creek Falls area at about 10:30 a.m. They said 23-year-old Wesley Sluder and 26-year-old Brandy Arnett appeared to be fine, and although a second search team was sent to their location in case they needed help hiking back to the command center, the pair was able to walk on their own.

Just as snow began to pound the ground, the pair and rescuers emerged from the woods minutes before noon. Sluder’s mom met them with tears streaming down her face.

“I didn’t think they were alive. I thought they were dead. I thought they were dead,” she said.

Family members hugged them before they were led to an ambulance to be checked out. They did not have to be taken to the hospital because neither suffered serious injuries.

---

RAW VIDEO: RAW VIDEO: Hikers Talk About How They Survived Night In Freezing Temps

RAW VIDEO: Chopper 9 Shows Hikers, Rescuers Emerging From Woods

---

Emergency crews had been searching for the hikers through the night after family members reported them missing just before 10 p.m. Monday. The crews were ordered to take a break around dawn because wind chills in the mountains were in the single digits.

Family members and searchers were especially concerned because Sluder and Arnett were not prepared for the cold temperatures. The pair had set out on a day hike Monday from where they parked their car at the Upper Creek Falls in the Pisgah National Forest. They were dressed for the day’s weather, but they did not take heavy clothing and carried only a picnic blanket and a lighter. They called family members earlier in the day and said they were lost, but then the cell phone battery died.

“We started backtracking and couldn’t find our way back. And at that moment we stopped and we prayed and we asked God to keep us safe through the night. He did,” Arnett said.

Sluder and Arnett told Eyewitness News they couldn’t get a fire started with a lighter because the ground was wet, so they huddled together under the blanket to stay warm.

“The reason we stayed the night is because it got dark and we couldn’t see. We had a flashlight but it didn’t work,” Sluder said.

Rescuers said the pair did the right thing by finding ways to stay warm and by not moving once they were lost.

A number of agencies assisted in the search for the hikers. Both the National Guard and the North Carolina Highway Patrol used their helicopters to search from the air. About three dozen people from local emergency crews, some on all-terrain vehicles, spread out on the ground in the Jonas Ridge area. Members of the North Carolina Helo-Aquatic Rescue Team also helped in the search. The NC HART includes eight members of the Charlotte Fire Department.