Ballston, N.Y. —

A 14-year-old boy playing with two friends fell into an open sewer main Saturday and took a half-mile-long ride through a dark, smelly, wet sewer line before Saratoga County sheriff's deputies rescued him.

His 20-minute trip through the sewer pipe that traveled under the woods, across a creek and under Route 67 ended loudly.

"It was a curdling scream," Sgt. James Leonard said about the boy's cries for help that led deputies to him.

The deputies pulled the manhole cover off the county sewer line where it passed through the Curtis Industrial Park. They found the boy clutching the metal railings that serve as steps.

" We found him and pulled him out in the industrial park," Leonard said. "He's a lucky young man"

The boy and his two friends were on bicycles and playing in the woods along the Zim Smith Trail, which follows the county line north of Underpass Road. The Saratoga County Sheriff's Office said Sunday that section of Zim Smith Trail, which runs between Oak Street and Underpass Road, was closed when the teens came across it due to construction being done in that area.

The large manhole didn't have a cover. The 14-year-old apparently fell in and was quickly carried off by the fast-moving effluent.

At the scene afterward, Saratoga County Sewer District Executive Director Dan Rourke looked into the manhole and pointed out how swiftly the diluted sewage traveled through the line.

"I'm shaking" Rourke said about learning of the boy's experience.

Work has been underway along the length of the sewer line. Rourke said the manhole should have been kept closed by the contractor. He said the sewer district would cooperate with the sheriff's investigation.

While the boy disappeared deeper into the pipe, his friends called 911 for help at about 4:55 p.m., Leonard said. As the boy was swept down the line, the pipe he was in crossed the Mourning Kill.

Deputies and the State Police responded to the call. About 12 deputies, troopers and rescue workers searched, Leonard said.

Knowing he was underground and heading south, the police went that way too. They arrived at the Curtis Industrial Park, 831 Route 67. That's when his screams could be heard coming from underneath a manhole cover.

After the boy was pulled out of the dark at about 5:15 p.m., Leonard said, he was put into a Community Emergency Corps ambulance and sent to Saratoga Hospital. The sheriff's office reported early Sunday morning that the teenager has only minor cuts and scrapes and was accompanied to the hospital by his parents.

The boy and his friends are from the Ballston Spa area. Their identities have not been released. Because of Saturday's incident, the sheriff's office is stressing that that section of Zim Trail remains closed because of construction.

kcrowe@timesunion.com • 518-454-5084 • @KennethCrowe