ST. GEORGE, Utah-A 7-hour rescue near Pine Valley ended when a hiker, suffering from a rattlesnake bite while recreating off of the Mill Canyon Trail, was loaded into a helicopter and flown to a St. George hospital for treatment early Tuesday.

The incident commenced with a 911 call from a hiker who reported to emergency dispatch that he suffered a rattlesnake bite when stepping down from a rock.

This startled the snake, per Washington County Search and Rescue Liaison Sgt. Darrell Cashin, resulting in the bite.

This hiker was located among the Mill Canyon Trail, 25 miles north of St. George off of Dixie National Forest Service Road 255 near Pine Valley.

This trail is nearly 10 miles long, featuring an elevation gain of 1,500 feet with towering cliffs and steep terrain featuring numerous rock formations.

The hiker was scouting the area for archery practice when suffering a snake bite on the lower half of his leg.

Cashin said the adventurer did not hear any signs of the snake approaching, such as the rattle.

Cashin said it was fortunate that this hiker is also a paramedic and that minutes after the bite, he was able to successfully apply a tourniquet to his leg, but not tightly enough to suppress the flow of blood.

However, it was also applied tightly enough to restrict blood flow to slow the spread of the venom, Cashin reported.