More than three dozen Pennsylvania college students spending spring break in Kentucky on a mission trip were safe Friday after becoming lost for hours when a sightseeing mountain hike unexpectedly stretched into the night, officials said Friday. 
 
 Rescuers were able to find them _ hungry and cold _ after an hours-long effort in rough terrain and freezing temperatures. 
 
 Most of the hikers were seen in the emergency room at Appalachian Regional Hospital in Whitesburg, with one woman admitted and listed in good condition, spokeswoman Dena Sparkman said Friday. 
 
 The few who declined to be seen at the hospital "were like, `feed me and we're good,'" Sparkman said. 
 
 "I think the best medicine we gave them was chicken soup," Sparkman said. 
 
 The group was made up of 37 students and three staff members from La Salle University on an annual mission trip called Project Appalachia, said John Caroulis, spokesman for the Philadelphia school. 
 
 Caroulis said the group was helping build houses in Harlan, about a half-hour from Whitesburg, and had gone on a hiking trip that was made every year on the trip. 
 
 Rescuers said the group got disoriented when it got dark while they were hiking near Bad Branch Falls, an area on the Bad Branch Nature Preserve. 
 
 A search began about 7 p.m. EST Thursday, and it took until 3:30 a.m. Friday to get the entire group off the mountain, said Mayking Volunteer Fire Chief Tony Fugate, who helped. 
 
 "It's pretty rough country back in there," Fugate told The Associated Press. 
 
 Fugate said the group apparently hiked to a popular spot above the Bad Branch Falls waterfall, but it got dark and they couldn't find the trail back. When they got disoriented, they called 911 from their cellphones and were able to talk rescuers toward them. 
 
 They were on a 5-mile trail shaped like a lollipop headed to an area called High Rock, which is known for its breathtaking views, according to Shad Baker, a local resident who created many of the public trails used in the area and helped guide rescuers via cell phone. 
 
 "Rescuing 37 people is a monumental undertaking," Baker said. "So the fact that they got them out is really good." 
 
 The trail, lined with hemlock trees and rhododendron bushes, takes hikers immediately into the deep woods. A sign at the trail head warns hikers to stay on the trail. A visitor log at the entrance to the trail was signed "La Salle University" for March 8. 
 
 Baker said the hikers didn't arrive at High Rock until 5 p.m., it began to get dark, and much of the trail was covered by trees, branches and snow. He said the group would have had to cross three streams to reach the destination, and rescuers said by the time they arrived, many of the hikers said their feet were numb. 
 
 "I think once they got up there, there's 37 footprints going every which direction. ... I think they couldn't figure out which way they came from," Baker said. 
 
 Baker said to make things more confusing, the trail that would have taken them down the mountain actually goes uphill before it goes downhill. 
 
 "It's counterintuitive," he said. 
 
 He said the group was not dressed for the weather, with most of them wearing just sneakers, jeans and light jackets as temperatures began dropping into the 20s. 
 
 Fugate said only a few of the students had flashlights. 
 
 The group had to be walked down the mountain using an alternate route that had fewer obstacles but took more time, Baker said. 
 
 National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Ray said temperatures in the Pine Mountain area dipped into the low 20s overnight. He said the high Thursday reached only into the mid-20s. 
 
 Caroulis said the group was expected to return to Pennsylvania on Saturday as scheduled. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Rebecca Yonker and Janet Cappiello contributed to this report. ||||| One hiker remained hospitalized Friday morning after 37 Pennsylvania college students and three staff members were rescued Thursday night from Pine Mountain in Letcher County, police said. 
 
 The hikers from La Salle University in Philadelphia called for help about 7 p.m. Thursday and were found by 11 p.m., Kentucky State Police trooper Tony Watts said. 
 
 The group, which was hiking near Bad Branch Falls at a place called High Rock, stayed together near a campfire and stayed in contact with police and rescue workers by cellphone after that first call, Watts said. 
 
 The hikers had to leave the mountain by foot, and that took until 3:45 a.m. Friday, Letcher County Fire and Rescue Ambulance Service Director Gary Rogers said. 
 
 All 40 of the hikers were taken to Whitesburg Appalachian Regional Hospital, where one remained Friday, hospital spokeswoman Hollie Phillips said. 
 
 The remaining hiker is in stable condition and is expected to be released Saturday, said Dena Sparkman, Community CEO for Whitesburg ARH. 
 
 The students were treated for possible hypothermia, dehydration and exhaustion, Sparkman said. One hiker had strained knees, she said. 
 
 In addition to medical treatment, she said, hospital staff provided the cold, wet students with chicken noodle soup, dry hospital scrubs and pajama pants. 
 
 "The other thing was loaning them cellphones so that they could call their parents. That was an emotional time," Sparkman said. 
 
 LaSalle spokesman Jon Caroulis said the person who was hospitalized Friday was there for observation because of a pre-existing condition. Caroulis declined to elaborate. The group was expected to return to Philadelphia on Saturday. 
 
 Caroulis said the group, including three non-faculty staff members, was on an alternative spring break trip to Eastern Kentucky that the university has offered for several years. 
 
 The students had stayed in Harlan County, where they were volunteering for a non-profit organization, Caroulis said. 
 
 The students had hiked during previous trips, but this time, they took the wrong path down the mountain, he said. 
 
 Blake Enlow, executive director of a Harlan-based group called Christian Outreach with Appalachian People, said the college group was helping to remodel a home and build another. 
 
 "Thankfully, they are all OK, just worn out," Enlow said. 
 
 Valarie Honeycutt Spears: (859) 231-3409. Twitter: @vhspears.
– It is not your typical lost-hiker story: For one thing, it was a group of 40 hikers who could not find their way down a remote mountain in Kentucky as night fell and freezing temperatures set in, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader. Luckily, they still had phone reception. The group of 37 students and three staffers from La Salle University in Pennsylvania called for help about 7pm yesterday, and rescuers got them off the trail about 3:45am. All were checked out for hypothermia, and only one was admitted to a local hospital. She is expected to be out tomorrow. "It's pretty rough country back in there," one rescuer tells the AP of the Bad Branch Nature Preserve. The main treatment provided by hospital staffers was, yep, chicken soup. "The other thing was loaning them cellphones so that they could call their parents," says a hospital official. "That was an emotional time." The students are in the area to build houses for Project Appalachia.