You've probably heard about Madeline Connelley getting lost near Glacier National Park in Montana for 7 days and 6 nights.

Here is an article from the Chicago Tribune:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-rescued-montana-hiker-met-20170526-story.html

I think this is a pretty typical story. No gear because it was to be just a very quick hike on a trail. She got confused and headed in the wrong direction - most likely got off the trail.

Very luckily, the outcome was good.

I am a very big believer that the most basic handheld GPS can make all the difference IF the user remembers to set a waypoint for their car ... and the batteries are reasonably good (turning off/on to conserve power). I think a GPS with an electronic compass makes it more foolproof if not thinking so clearly.

A GPS with a hand held compass is even safer since its easier to turn off the GPS and still maintain a sense of direction, though following a straight line bearing is most likely impossible in such remote country.

A GPS, compass, and a PLB are the ultimate combo.

Of course you still need to survive long enough to self-rescue or be rescued.

[/quote]
I am a very big believer that the most basic handheld GPS can make all the difference IF the user remembers to set a waypoint for their car[/quote]
When a person wants to reliably use that. It´s best to form the habit of setting the waypoint always when leaving the car. I do it even in the city.

[/quote]I think a GPS with an electronic compass makes it more foolproof if not thinking so clearly.
[/quote]
I managed to mess up the settings of my GPS one time and switched from bearing to heading. I noticed it because the direction the GPSr pointed to did not agree with the target loction on the map.
Lesson learned: Check plausibility of setting while it is easy to verify.

Related to this ...

As a father of two active young adults I spent some time today thinkng about what I can do to make sure that they'll have a GPS with them when they go hiking.

Several thoughts come to mind:

First, boy, a handheld GPS with maps & electronic compass is kind of pricey (min abt $185), especially if I have to buy two of them.

Second, even if I do give each of them a GPS, the odds are all too good that they won't bring them with when going hiking.

Third, the one thing I KNOW that they will bring with them is their smartphone - which happen to be Android phones.

So, I'm now thinking that the best and lowest cost solution is to offer to pay for them to install the BackCountry Navigator app, which provides 24K topo maps, seems pretty easy to use, and when set to "Goto" mode displays a compass with a simple direction to waypoint mark.

I wonder about the battery life on their Android phones using the GPS & app, so I think I'd purchase each of them an external battery power pack in the hopes that they might carry them along with - though in reality the odds of that happening might be slim.

A small external battery is a great idea. Something that will hold two full charges is only a few ounces and can be purchased for about $20.

I have purchased backcountry navigator but I'm currently using Alltrails. It is a bit more but it has a number of different maps and overlays for each area.
It also allows you to make custom topographic, satellite, and other maps you can download and print out in all the standard topo sizes.

I also use a free app called GPS essentials for my car waypoint in town or on the trail. I really like it because it has a great dashboard feature. I have setup my dashboard to include sunrise and sunset so I know how much longer to hike, moonrise, moon set, and moon phases to know how much ambient light I'll have at night. an electronic compass, my altitude and the GPS' accuracy.

Another great free app for wayfinding at night is Skymap. It is an old app but you can look for a specific star so it's a good way to find north or other directions if you have knowledge of constellations. With the search feature it's great on a cloudy night.

These three apps,a battery phone case and a map and compass are what I use on the trail.

As always, I'm just a user of the apps.

this is why I am learning toward a small hiking pack for everything off pavement;
even big city parks. My thought is that its the day hikers that get in the most trouble - the overnighters have gear...

That is a long established and proven technique. As Peter Kummerfeldt has long taught, wrote in his book, is written in many other books, and is always discussed in this forum. It won't do you any good if you don't have it with you. Always have the bare essentials, even to walk in a park.

I wish we had a "like" button. A friend of mine went for walk in the park with his kids one day, and snapped his ankle when he fell in the creek while hunting for crayfish. His cell phone got soaked so he couldn't call for help. It was his only prep. He weighed 350 pounds so it was no easy task to get him out. I'll never go unprepared again. Of course, going out over-prepared is an entirely different matter.

A search of this forum should turn up much discussion on this. If you need some good references:

Surviving a Wilderness Emergency

98.6 Keep Your Ass Alive

Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge Pamphlet

These are all excellent references for survival. The Boy Scout pamphlet is an excellent way to learn about it and prepare. It works for anyone that is not behind enemy lines trying to evade.

Peter Kummerfeldt's and Cody Lundin's books are (or used to be) on the ETS home page as well. These links are to Amazon. They both agree with each other completely except on which chemical is best for purifying water, one prefers iodine and the other chlorine.

I haven't read the other two, but Mr. Lundin's book is nothing less than spectacular. It's informative, entertaining, well-written, accessible, thoughtful, and I couldn't find any inaccuracies. It would be hard to beat for someone new to the subject matter.

Consider the case of Paul Fugate, a National Park Service ranger at Chiricahua National Monument. Late one Sunday in January, 1981, he slipped out of the office to check the nature trail. Hasn't been seen since ad the case is still unresolved.......

The task would require at the most about thirty minutes.