The woman and her son got lost on Friday after they left the Sacramento area and their GPS had directed them onto old logging roads deep into the forest.

A volunteer search and rescue team in Calaveras County was able to locate a mother and her son in a 'labyrinth-like' forest area because of notes the mother had left on their trail.

A mother and child stranded deep in the dense Stanislaus National Forest late last week left a trail of handwritten notes that helped their rescuers find them, officials announced this week.