Hmmm...

There may be a movie in this for him.

It sounds to me like the parents had to drive their 18 year old kid though a few hundred miles of desert that was experiencing a long term drought of epic proportions to drop him off in a wilderness area twice. There's got to be more to that than meets the eye. Rather comedic or diabolical, there's a story behind that for darn sure.

And the kid being surprised that it was a "very rugged" trail. That one leads me to wonder what he actually envisioned for this trip. If anything, that vision (which I have to assume includes Reese Witherspoon) needs to be included in the movie because it has to be "absolutely fabulous".