I followed the Kim family case closely while it happened, and drove Bear Camp Road the following summer. While there was speculation during the search that they'd followed a Mapquest like routing, post rescue interviews indicated that they just had a paper map to work from. Bear Camp was a last minute rerouting after they missed a planed turnoff to OR42. There were warning signs, though some locals installed larger ones after the fact.
They did not have GPS. GPS might have saved James, by showing just how far they were from civilization. The only electronics they had was a cell phone, which did help narrow the search (based on the location of the last text message).
Making bad route choices and getting lost is not a new phenomenon.
