A father and son spent an extra night on the mountain after weather conditions deteriorated during a hike in a remote and rugged area north of Indian Arm.

The father in his 60s and son in his 20s left for a hiking trip Thursday and were expected to return Sunday afternoon.

They were walking through an area with no trails, but had used ribbons to mark their path so they'd be able to find their way back. Unfortunately, they were unable to find the ribbons, and became confused.

“There’s a lot of ribbons up there and we followed those and those led us nowhere,” hiker Peter Hansen, who was the father of the pair, said. “At a certain moment it started pouring down rain.”

They were trying to hike from Jones Creek to Norton Lake, and were confused because they heard water on their right-hand side.

"Being lost is this feeling… It's the most terrible feeling. It feels so hopeless," Hansen said.

They decided to pitch a tent and hunker down for the night in the brush.

They used a satellite phone to call a friend for help, and Coquitlam Search and Rescue members were sent in to find them.

"What we had was a sat. phone message on someone's voicemail. It was very broken and it just described they were lost," Coquitlam SAR volunteer Mike Coyle said.

"They thought they were east of Norton Lake."

Then their satellite phone stopped working.

Search and rescue crews mobilized by water, land and air and a volunteer spotted the missing hikers on a logging road Monday afternoon.

By the time they were spotted from a SAR helicopter, they'd already found their way and were heading back. Still, they were grateful to have help.

“They were very cold but in good spirits it seems,” Coyle said.

SAR crews said the hikers were prepared, but used the rescue as an opportunity to remind people of how quickly the weather can turn in the mountains. It's the time of year when good conditions are less likely, and a single mistake can be very costly.

Hansen says he won’t try again until he has a “really excellent” GPS device.

With a report from CTV Vancouver's Michele Brunoro