PHOTOS PROVIDED Sarah Hughes recently survived a fall from a cliff while hiking near Little Pine Creek, above. A snake bite and several hours of wandering later, rescuers found Hughes and took her to UPMC Susquehanna Williamsport Regional Medical Center.

A leisurely hike near Little Pine Creek became a struggle for survival recently for a Carlisle woman.

Sara Hughes and her fiance, Ben Fazio, of Carlisle, were visiting the area and decided to hike the five-and-a-half-mile rugged trail north of Waterville.

But when Hughes was separated from Fazio, who walked faster, she became trapped in mud on the trail.

As she tried to free herself, she tumbled down a steep bank, landing several hundred feet below, she said.

“It was the scariest day of our lives,” the 33-year-old woman said. “I don’t recall anything else other than waking up and seeing sky and the cliff,” she said.

Injured, but able to walk, Hughes walked for several hours until she came upon several brown snakes in the stream she was following.

One of the snakes bit her exposed right ankle, she said.

Continuing to walk, the pain radiating through her body, she made an attempt to climb up the mountainside using her hands and arms, she said.

“I thought if I got up higher I might get cell service and call 911,” she said.

Citizens Hose Co. of Jersey Shore, and its emergency medical services were among those responding, according to a firefighter reached at the station.

Waterville Fire and Rescue Co. also went out using all-terrain vehicles to search for the missing woman.

As dusk settled and it became dark, Hughes said she heard a helicopter above and could see vehicles with lights on in the distance.

“It was not ours,” a state trooper said Tuesday. “It was LifeFlight in case it was needed.”

But despite seeing the rescuers at a distance, Hughes said they were unable to immediately find her.

Using her cell phone again, she gave the dispatcher her last location at 10:30 p.m. The battery then died.

Just before midnight, Hughes later was told, she was rescued.

“I saw a truck light coming toward me,” she said.

Hughes spent several hours receiving treatment at UPMC Susquehanna Regional Medical Center for dehydration and the snakebite, and also received a vaccine. She contacted the newspaper a few days later by email.

“I can’t thank them nearly enough,” Hughes said of the volunteers and search teams.

“We thought it was going to be an easy walk through the trail,” she said.

A forestry website indicates solo hikes are okay but under certain circumstances. If the terrain is rugged, it is best to have an extra set of hands and an individual who could go for help.

“I will never hike alone,” Hughes said, having arrived in the county to stay for the weekend at her parents’ cabin near Trout Run.

“Always take a bag of food and water and a compass,” she advised, adding she had the car key on her during the ordeal, leaving her fiance unable to get inside the car to summon for help.

“Hide a key somewhere on the vehicle, an extra key,” she said.