``She was limp and almost lifeless. I was just holding her as the crew chief brought us up and just holding onto her, bringing her in,'' Moss said of the airlift.

``She wouldn't have made it much longer. She's really lucky.''

Jack's dramatic rescue brings a happy end to a saga that gripped Southern California since Easter, when Jack and her friend, 19-year-old Nicolas Cendoya, called 911 to report that they were lost and out of water after wandering off the trail during what they expected would be an easy day hike on the Holy Jim Trail.

The popular trail is in the Cleveland National Forest, where the dangers of 720 miles of rugged mountain wilderness run smack up against the planned communities and shopping malls of suburban southeast Orange County. Jack and Cendoya, who was rescued late Wednesday after being spotted by hikers, parked their car off a dirt road just a few miles from an upscale neighborhood where on Thursday children bounced on trampolines and customers sipped lattes at a Starbucks in an outdoor strip mall.

The two got separated sometime Sunday night and were both found less than a mile from their car and ``very, very close'' to one another, although they did not know it, said Lt. Jason Park, an Orange County sheriff's spokesman.