Trenton Taylor, 14, of Roosevelt, said he also had a sleeping bag with him. He told The Deseret News in Salt Lake City that he walked for miles, drank water from streams and was hungry and tired.

Taylor got lost Tuesday while trying to catch up with scout leaders who were hauling camping supplies by horseback. Before he could reach the leaders, he took a wrong turn by following a set of deer prints that he mistook for horse tracks.

''It was beautiful," he said, ''but it was hard to find the trail."

Taylor was back in safekeeping before his parents knew he was missing - and almost before scout leaders could notify the Duchesne County sheriff's deputies that he had been missing. He reappeared as deputies were organizing a search. A lack of cell phone coverage hindered communications.

Taylor said wandered into the other scout camp around noon Wednesday, but the sheriff's office wasn't notified until 5 a.m. Thursday.

Taylor said he got lost after running ahead of other scouts in his troop to catch up to his leaders. The troop was near Kidney Lake, which at 190 acres is one of the largest reservoirs in the sprawling Uinta wilderness.

The remote area is popular with campers, Sheriff Travis Mitchell said.

''If they stay on the trail, they'll pretty much run into someone," he said. ''It's when they get off the trail and get scared that that they get in trouble."

Trenton told The Deseret News he was mostly worried that his father might be angry.

''I thought he was going to be mad at me," he said. ''I did the exact opposite of what he said I should do."

Brian Taylor said there are lessons to be learned from the incident. But Thursday morning, he said, ''I'm just glad to have him back."

Hikers can easily get lost in the disorienting and wooded terrain of the Uinta Mountains, and Boy Scouts are no exception:

- In June 2005, Brennan Hawkins, 11, took a wrong trail while walking to a chow hall at a 530-acre Boy Scout camp in the Uinta Mountains. He was found 5 miles away by volunteer searchers on all-terrain vehicles four days later.

- In August 2004, Garrett Bardsley left his father and other scouts at Cubberant Lake to return to a camp just 150 yards away to change wet shoes and socks. The 12-year-old vanished, and repeated search efforts over a year failed to turn up any sign of the boy.