While searchers scoured the backwoods in southeastern Oregon for a nearly a month looking for Al and Rita Chretien, little did anyone know they were more than 300 kilometres away -- stranded in northeastern Nevada.

Rita was found alive yesterday by hunters on a remote logging road in Elko County, at the edge of the Humboldt National Forest.

RCMP Cpl. Dan Moskaluk said the van she was in was stuck deeply in the mud, in a location far from civilization.

"The hunters had to backtrack nine miles back towards main highway to get into cell phone range to advice emergency personnel of their find," he told CTV News.

Rita survived for more than seven weeks alone with just water and a small amount of trail mix. Her endurance has astonished everyone, including sister-in-law Lorraine Hoving, who is racing to her hospital bedside in Idaho.

"I'll probably cry just seeing Rita knowing that she survived seven-and-a-half weeks in a van and hung onto hope for all that time," Hoving said.

Rita and her husband Al left their home in Penticton on March 19th for a trade show in Las Vegas.

The couple was last seen buying gas and snacks at a food mart in Baker City, Oregon. It's also the place authorities and friends centered their initial search, fanning out from the small town slowly.

Luke Allen of the Twin Falls Police Department said Rita told authorities that she and her husband made a wrong turn while they were taking a scenic route on some Nevada back roads.

"They had made a wrong turn she believes somewhere around Mountain Home, head out on they believe on Highway 51. She was sleeping, in and out of sleep for most of the trip," Allen said.

Allen said Rita woke up on a dirt road that her husband was taking, mistakenly believing it was a shortcut to get back on track.

"They kept getting stuck. For two days they were getting stuck and unstuck in their vehicle over and over again until eventually the husband said, 'I'm going to go out and look for help,'" Allen said.

Rita believes that happened on March 21. It was the last day she said she saw her husband.

Loved ones notified police on March 30th after the couple failed to return home to Penticton.

A day later a widespread search was launched in Baker County, Oregon. It was suspended on April 21. Amazingly, Rita was found 15 days later.

Now that Rita is recovering, the focus is now on finding her husband, who didn't have the benefit of receiving water and shelter.

Rita said the weather was nice when Al left her, but a storm blew in not long after, Allen said.

"So basically where she thought he was headed, if he had given her direction that he was going to go and anything that he was carrying that we can use to identify or locate him with," Allen said.

Search teams from Owyhee County began a ground search Saturday morning. Inclement weather has hampered efforts to search from the air.

Rita Chretien has told family members she thought she was days away from dying. And she doesn't believe her husband is alive.

Family members are hoping that she is wrong.

"We believe possibly God could grant us another miracle for Albert," Hoving said.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington