Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette photos
	A view of a part of Beam Rocks, where the men in Amber Nicole Swanson's group split from her. Click photo for larger image.
	Searchers patrol Forbes State Forest yesterday morning for Amber. Click photo for larger image.
	Amber, 12, center, is greeted by family and friends yesterday at the command center from which rescue personnel coordinated their search for her in the Laurel Highlands. Click photo for larger image.

Cold, lonely and lost among thousands of acres of heavily wooded forest in the Laurel Highlands, Amber Swanson bedded down Thursday night with her only companion, a pit bull puppy.

As the 12-year-old girl huddled with her brother's dog for warmth, somewhere above them a state police helicopter scanned the ground with an infrared sensor. Rescuers fanned out on foot in the area where Amber was last seen in Forbes State Forest.

That was Thursday night, the beginning of a search by up to 300 people using horses, bicycles and all-terrain vehicles.

Hours earlier, Amber had set out on a fun outing with her brother, Justin Bowers, 22, of Jeannette, and his two friends.

The men planned to take Amber to Beam Rocks, a towering destination point in the forest that boasts a panoramic view at its summit of Somerset.

Figuring that the rocky climb would be too tough for a youngster, the men split from Amber and told her to take the black-and-white dog, Onyx, along an easier path where they would meet.

"We put her on the trail and told her to go up and wrap to the right," said one of Mr. Bowers' friends, Mitchell Kronen, 19, of Jeannette.

Amber never showed. At one point, they yelled to each other.

"We said, 'We'll be right there,' " Mr. Kronen said. "She said, 'All right.'"

But minutes later when the men tried to connect with Amber, she was gone. State police said she became disoriented.

"It was just a judgment error. We thought she was closer than she was," Mr. Bowers said nearly 18 hours later. "I just wanted to bring her out here and show her one of my favorite spots, and this happened."

Mr. Bowers and his friends tried to find Amber. When they couldn't, they contacted authorities.

Darkness fell, and by 2 a.m. yesterday, search leaders with the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources called a halt to walking the dangerous terrain until daybreak.

"Easy to break an ankle," Ed Callahan, Forbes State Forest's district forester, said of the area. "Easy to get lost, especially at night around here."

Forbes State Forest is set on the spine of a mountain ridge, where boulders are interspersed among stands of laurel. Bear and rattlesnake call the forest home. Mr. Callahan estimated that the forest has about 80 miles of trails that zigzag.

"This is a pretty rough piece of territory out here," said Paul Leasure, the area's chief ranger.

Yesterday morning, searchers began to move in a grid. Using search methods that accounted for Amber's age, they fixed the radius of the search between 1.5 miles and 3 miles from where she went missing.

Several search dogs hit on Amber's scent around Beam Rocks. But they couldn't track her past that, perhaps because the way the wind was blowing, Mr. Leasure speculated.

They had no idea where she was. Amber's parents were en route from Stephens County, Ga. Her uncle, Tom Swanson, 51, of Latrobe, thought the worst. The family prayed.

Around 12:50 p.m. yesterday, searchers crammed the command post at the conservation department's Laurel Mountain Maintenance headquarters. A change of shift was coming up at 2 p.m., and the coordinators were arranging new searches and targeting specific areas.

Suddenly, a cheer went up. State police Sgt. Roger Pivirotto had just gotten word that Amber was alive and well.

After spending a night with temperatures no higher than the 50s, clad in a short-sleeve black shirt and jeans, Amber found her way to the Laurel Highlands hiking trail. She and Onyx emerged on Shaffer Run Road in Jefferson Township, Somerset County.

Conservation officials said she was at least four miles from Beam Rocks -- outside the search perimeter suggested for Amber's age group -- although state police estimated the distance at more like 10 to 15 miles.

Sgt. Pivirotto said Amber heard music coming from a garage and found homeowner David Fath, who called 911. Mr. Fath, 55, said Amber told him she had passed several houses with "Keep Out" signs until she found him.

Mr. Fath, a Jeannette native who is a middle-school teacher in Kingman, Kan., said he was in the garage staining wood at his summer home around 12:20 p.m. when he noticed Amber.

"I was staining away and I happened to look out toward the garage door and there was a girl standing there with a dog. I said, 'Hi,' and she looked really worried, like she was ready to cry. I said, 'You look worried,' and she goes, 'I am. I'm lost.' "

Mr. Fath had been unaware of the saga unfolding scant miles from his home.

"I could just tell by her face, my gosh, she was shook up," Mr. Fath said.

He asked Amber where she started out from.

"She said, 'I can't tell you.' I said, 'Somerset?' She said, 'I never heard of it.' "

Mr. Fath offered Amber something to eat. She declined. But she took him up on an offer for water, saying she was very thirsty. She downed two glasses, sharing some with Onyx.

"She said, 'I just spent the night in the forest. Thank God I had my dog because he kept me warm.' "

Mr. Fath said Amber told him the only wildlife she came across was a deer, which ran away. The two spent the time waiting for state police to arrive feeding bread to trout in a stream behind Mr. Fath's house.

Minutes after the good news reached Amber's family, Tom Swanson and Justin Bowers addressed the media, thanking the searchers for their efforts. Mr. Swanson read a statement scrawled on a yellow pad.

"We're just so thankful and blessed that she's fine," Mr. Swanson said. "Our mind was going through the worst possible scenarios. We were praying."

Mr. Bowers said his sister, a middle-school cheerleader, was tough-minded.

"She's not a quitter," Mr. Bowers said. "I felt she had the will to try to find me. I know she was scared to death."

Just after 2 p.m., Cpl. Doman drove up with Amber. On the 20-minute trip from Mr. Fath's house to the Laurel Mountain facility, she tucked into a Burger King meal. Cpl. Doman said she felt fine -- so good that she was not seen by medics or taken to a hospital.

"She said she felt good. She was tired, achy, but otherwise seemed to be in good health," Cpl. Doman said.

Amber got out and hugged family members.

A reporter shouted to Amber, asking how she felt.

"I'm good," she replied.

Then she got back to the hugs.