PALA, Calif. -- Sheriff's dispatchers using cell phone technology helped deputies locate two men who became lost on a cloud-shrouded hillside while surveying a landfill project southwest of Pala Indian Reservation, authorities said Thursday.

Surveyors James Plunkett, 30, and Jason Wold, 25, were wet and exhausted after losing their bearings in the Stewart Canyon area, said Sgt. Bob Bishop of the San Diego County sheriff's Valley Center Station.

A surveying team leader contacted the Sheriff's Department about 4:50 p.m. Wednesday to report the two men missing, Bishop said.

Plunkett and Wold had been placing markers in the area for the landfill project when they lost their way in an area thick with brush and trees, he said.

Authorities could not deploy a helicopter in the search because of rain and low clouds, but deputies went to the area, Bishop said.

Sheriff's dispatchers, meanwhile, worked with the cell phone service provider, Verizon, and managed to "ping" a signal off Plunkett's phone, narrowing the search area to about one square mile, he said.

Deputies hiked up Stewart Mountain, cutting a trail through tall brush and trees, found Plunkett and Wold and assisted them down, Bishop said. He said the two men, who had been lightly dressed, were wet, cold, grateful to be rescued but not seriously hurt.

The landfill project is on county land and "has been in play for several years," said sheriff's Lt. Sylvester Washington.