A missing 68-year-old woman from Spindale, N.C., was found Monday morning when a Cherokee County tracking team discovered her lying in a creek bed in the western corner of the county.

The woman, who was taken to Upstate Carolina Medical Center for treatment of dehydration and possible hypothermia, was last seen Friday at about noon but wasn’t reported missing until 11:17 p.m. Saturday, according to Det. Brett Hooper of the Spindale, N.C., Police Department.

A Cherokee County Sheriff’s Deputy spotted her vehicle on a small trail just off Blanton-Love Road, which runs off Manning Road.

“You could barely see the car,” said Sheriff Bill Blanton.

A search team, including both tracking dogs and members of area fire departments, was assembled by about 9 a.m. Monday

The woman was found about two hours later approximately 50 or 60 yards from the road in a creek bed.

Blanton believed it was possible the woman had been in the woods since Saturday afternoon.

Asked to describe the area, Blanton replied: “Rough as it could possibly be. Some of it you had to crawl through on your hands and knees. Some of it the dogs couldn’t even get through.”

He added, “It was tough on the searchers. I could imagine how tough it was for her.”

Hooper said he received a call about the developing situation at about 9:30 a.m. Monday and immediately drove to the scene. He lauded the work of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department, Cherokee County Emergency Management and the local fire departments that came out to help.

“By the time I got there, they had 20 to 30 guys ready to go (search),” he said. “Cherokee County and their Emergency Management team were outstanding,” he said.

He added that Sheriff Bill Blanton already was in the woods when he arrived on the scene, “sweating with the best of them.”

When the woman first was reported missing, authorities said she was suffering from depression and might be in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Hooper said he did not know why the woman drove into Cherokee County, or how she ended up in the woods off Blanton-Love Road.

“She has no connections to Gaffney, to that road,” he said.

Both Hooper and Blanton were happy that search teams got to her in time. Hooper said the woman’s blood pressure dropped when she was taken out of the woods.

“I don’t know how much longer she could have survived in there,” Blanton said. “It was terrible.”

Members of CKC and Blacksburg volunteer fire departments responded to help the sheriff’s office search.