Beau promised a friend at school that he would try geocaching, which is fine except that the one he picked is pretty far out in the woods, and he loses signal long before he gets to the spot. He has the common sense to turn around immediately in light of this, but apparently not the navigational sense for this to put him anywhere near a road.
He wanders around, In The Damn Woods, for maybe an hour before he remembers that you're supposed to stay still, when you're lost like this. It makes it easier for the rescue people to find you.