ANGLEWORM LAKE— Searchers from the St. Louis County Volunteer Rescue Squad found two lost hikers along the Angleworm Trail early Tuesday morning. Two Ohio women, Leanne Martin, age 22, and Rachel Skrobot, age 25, had ventured out on the trail on Monday but became disoriented in the late afternoon.

As night fell, they texted friends from the International Wolf Center, where the two women had contacts, saying they were lost and needed assistance. Those friends initially attempted to locate the two women themselves, but quickly realized they weren’t prepared, according to a report by rescue squad coordinator Kurt Erickson, and backtracked out of the woods to call 911. County dispatchers paged the rescue squad at approximately 9:50 p.m.

While both women were experienced in the woods, rescue squad personnel were concerned the women had probably dressed lightly given the warmth of the afternoon and were very likely unprepared for anticipated freezing temperatures overnight.

But locating the women on the 12-mile loop trail wasn’t easy, given that their text messages had never indicated their position, and the pitch darkness in the woods. Audio communication wasn’t possible given the spotty cellular coverage and because the women had turned off their phone to preserve battery power.

Volunteer rescuers from Morse-Fall Lake Fire Department and First Responders were soon joined by other squad members from elsewhere in the area. Search teams of four or five people left the Angleworm trailhead about 11:15 p.m. Monday night, with teams of searchers heading up both sides of the trail.

The team that searched the west side of the lake found the two women about 1:30 a.m., both unharmed, but relieved. It took another hour for the group to retrace their steps back to the trailhead.