SILVER CITY, N.M. -- The search for a South Carolina hiker was called off weeks ago, so searchers in New Mexico got a happy surprise Sunday when she turned up alive.

Carolyn Dorn was rescued after hikers Albert and Peter Kottke heard a faint noise and stopped to look around as they hiked out of the Gila Wilderness at the end of their backpacking trip.

The saw someone moving on the other side of the Gila River, and as the figure drew closer, they saw a woman, hunched over and moving slowly.

The two university students crossed the river to find Dorn, 52, who had been alone in the Gila National Forest for five weeks.

She left for a two-week camping trip Dec. 6. But five days into it, she became trapped on the wrong side of the rain- and snow-swollen river, and could not get out.

A search for her over Christmas was called off after three days. Searchers had found no sign of her, TV station KOAT reported.

A New Mexico National Guard helicopter crew, using night vision goggles and a U.S. Geological Survey map the Kottke brothers marked, rescued the weak and dehydrated woman Sunday.