CHERRY TWP — First responders trekked deep into the woods to rescue a logging company worker who suffered a medical emergency Thursday morning.

Some of the rescuers became exhausted after hiking a mile through rough terrain, fallen trees and a nearly knee-deep creek to reach the 37-year-old Emlenton man.

“They were tramping on their tongues when it was over,” Chief Reid Campbell of the West Sunbury Volunteer Fire Department said of the rescue crews.

The victim, who at one point was unconscious and needed precautionary treatment for hypothermia, was eventually hauled out by emergency utility vehicle and taken to Grove City Medical Center.

He was admitted in stable condition, authorities said. His condition this morning was not available.

The man was reportedly part of a two-man crew assessing a private timber property off Grubb Road in Cherry Township.

“The two guys were surveying the woods to determine how to start cutting,” Campbell said. “They were walking through the woods when one of them had a medical-emergency seizure.”

The other man called 911 on his cell phone shortly before 8:30 a.m. The logging company that employed the men was not known.

The emergency call sent volunteer firefighters from West Sunbury, Slippery Rock and Marion Township to the scene. They were joined by medical crews with the Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company and Rescue Team and Superior Ambulance.

The rescuers didn’t know what they were about to face to complete their mission.

“The area had been logged before and there were tree tops and debris in the way,” Campbell said. “It was a hard time getting to him.”

Doreen Taggart, the medical officer of the Slippery Rock fire company, got a first-hand, hands-on experience in the difficult rescue.

“It was heavily wooded with downed trees, briars, underbrush and hillsides,” she said. “It was wet and everything was mud. Then we had to cross a creek — the water was half way up the knee.”

Once out of the 6- to 7-foot-wide creek, there was at least one more embankment to scale.

“They traipsed hill and dale out there,” Campbell said.

Along with manpower, emergency off-road utility vehicles were deployed.

A fire department officer who lives in the area of the rescue was able to navigate the woods and was first to get to the victim. The officer immediately served as a human GPS for the rescuers.

“He was able to be in constant contact with Slippery Rock EMS and Superior Ambulance to help guide them back to him,” Campbell said.

More than 30 minutes after beginning the search, two emergency medical technicians and six firefighters found the man. He previously had passed out but had since regained consciousness, authorities said.

Rescuers placed the man on a backboard, wrapped him in a cervical collar and administered intravenous therapy and oxygen.

But given the cold, with overnight temperatures dipping to the low 30s, emergency crews feared the victim might succumb to hypothermia.

“The firefighters took off their coats and we put them over him and applied heat packs to bring his temperature up,” Taggart said.

The man was placed on a Stokes rescue basket and eased onto an all-terrain vehicle, which was used to transport the man out of the woods and eventually to an ambulance before being taken to the hospital.