Any trip is only as good as your planning. Weights, fuel, endurance, weather are the staples of planning and shouldn't reveal any surprises. What seems to have surprised this guy, as a relatively low-time inexperienced pilot, were the planning considerations that are needed to operate safely in and out of a confined area. When you're grizzly and ugly, a confined area is rotor span plus 2 feet. When you are just starting, an open football field can be a confined area. The accompanying aircraft with him got uncomfortable and threw it away, this guy didn't realize he'd run out of ideas until he was over committed to the landing. He was obviously thinking of getting home and maybe what a great fishing trip this had been, instead of thinking what 'gotcha's' were lining up for him. It's a tale as old as time, if you change the plan, change the thinking.