BAKER CITY, Ore. -- It's amazing that Doris Anderson survived almost two weeks in the Wallowa Mountains of Eastern Oregon. It's even more amazing that the 76-year-old did so without shoes.

Family photo

Doris Anderson

Barbara Moore, one of Anderson's daughters, told The Oregonian newspaper that her mother lost her shoes and dentures during the ordeal, and the lack of footwear made it nearly impossible to walk through the rugged terrain.

When she did try to walk out, Moore said, she apparently walked in circles. Her mother complained that she kept ending up in the same place, Moore said.

"She went through so much out there, and she is really miserable now," Moore said.

Doctors at St. Elizabeth Health Services in Baker City said Anderson, who suffered frostbite to her feet, is stable and may be transferred to Providence Portland Medical Center later this week.

Searchers said the weather changed often, and Anderson survived soaking thunderstorms and temperature shifts from the 80s in the daytime to the low 30s at night.

"She is in pain, she has a lot of swelling in her feet, and it hurts," Moore said. "She wants to go home."

Condition upgraded

Anderson, 76, had been listed in critical condition but over the weekend, St. Elizabeth Health Service spokeswoman Amy Dunkak said the 76-year-old woman was stable and no longer critical. She is beginning to remember and talk about her orderal and is expected to make a full recovery.

She got lost with her husband and became separated on a hunting trip in late August and wasn't found until Thursday.

Doctors say they are astounded that she survived. The grandmother of seven was lightly clothed, had no supplies or survival gear and overnight temperatures dropped to the 30s.

Anderson rescued just in time

Family members say doctors told them a 76-year-old woman found alive in the Wallowa Mountains after nearly two weeks probably would have died within hours if she had not been rescued.

Family members say they have talked to her but that she had said nothing about her time lost in the woods.

Two weeks after Doris Anderson disappeared while on a hunting trip with her husband, rescuers found the 76-year-old laying next to a creek surrounded by thick brush, alone and with no food or supplies at the bottom of a steep canyon in the Wallowa Mountains of northeast Oregon.

Anderson was found by a determined sheriff's deputy and police trooper.

Deputies aided by ravens

Baker County Sheriff's Deputy Travis Ash said he and Oregon State Police Trooper Chris Hawkins went looking for Doris Anderson. They left a Forest Service road and went down a steep, brushy canyon because Ash felt it had not been searched well enough before.

Ash said they heard ravens and also heard the Sandy woman talking to herself, very faintly.

AUDIO of 911 call: We found her

"Oh, my God, I'm glad to see you," Anderson told the men, according to Ash.

A helicopter team plucked her from the rugged terrain. She was then flown to a Baker City hospital.

She's expected to remain hospitalized a week, said George Winn, chief executive of St. Elizabeth Health Services in Baker City. He described her as "very depleted" and in critical condition, but with stable vital signs and no broken bones

Rescue teams had been through the mountainous area but had found no sign of her. Knowing that she was only lightly clothed in temperatures that had dipped into the 30s at night, they had scaled back the search nearly a week earlier.

Background: Search scaled back for missing woman

But they hadn't given up.

"We just asked her if she was hurt and talked to her about her family," Hawkins said Friday as Anderson recovered in a hospital from dehydration and a hip injury.

The rescuers were so focused on her well-being that they didn't ask her how she had survived.

Anderson was on a bow hunting trip Aug. 24 with her 74-year-old husband, Harold, when their sport utility vehicle, pulling a utility trailer, got stuck. Harold Anderson also broke his wrist unloading an all-terrain vehicle from the trailer.

The couple tried to walk to a U.S. Forest Service road for help but became exhausted. Harold Anderson said his wife headed back to the vehicle. A hunting party later found a disoriented Harold Anderson, but there was no sign of his wife.

Miracle rescue

"I thought I'd never see her again until the rapture," he said.

Blog: Search ends miraculously

About 70 volunteers a day had combed the mountain in eastern Oregon until the search was scaled back in late August.

"I'd given up hope that she could've lived the first three days," said her brother-in-law, Melvin Anderson. "But my wife always said, 'No, she's alive.' And my wife was right. We've had a candle lit every day for her and my wife believes in that. Light a candle and God will take care of her. And apparently -- he was sure looking after her."

Iris Anderson, 71, Melvin Anderson's wife, said prayer and her sister-in-law's healthy lifestyle must have sustained her.

"How she managed to live for two weeks at the bottom of canyon, I don't know," she said.

According to family members who had all but given up hope, they had planned a memorial service for her next weekend. Harold and their two daughters quickly returned to Boise, where she was expected to be hospitalized.

"I started crying because I hadn't been able to, last night I was saying, 'Doris, where are you? I'll come find you. I'll rent a plane, helicopter, just let me know where you are,' " Iris Anderson said.

Doris was last seen on Friday, August 24.

Harold's brother, Bill Anderson, said the two were married after graduating Franklin High in 1951. Harold said Bill was devastated and thought his life would never be the same.

"Just to be alive, she had to be there at least 10 nights, you know, so it's unbelievable that she'd still be alive," he said.