Beni's Adventure or "It was a dark and stormy night..."

This is Beni our beautiful golden retriever.  Mark always says "He could win a beauty contest but he is just not that smart".  He goes on hikes and trails with me.  We go about 25 miles a week and we always take the same route to the park across 13th to the Porter Rockwell trail and then up through Steeple Chase to the top of the road and then back.  He has been mountain bike riding with Mark and Patrick many times in the Corner Canyon area.  Last night Kevin took him to the mountain trail near the Draper Temple.  Kevin has a new downhill bike he really likes. He rode up the trail and Beni ran ahead but always turned around at each turn.  He always stays close and doesn't go off the trails.  They got to the top and started down and Beni ran ahead still looking back and checking on Kevin.  It started to rain and Kevin wanted to get back quickly so he passed Beni and took three turns very fast.  It started to lightning and thunder and Beni didn't come. Beni is scared to death of loud noises.  Whenever Patrick sets off firecrackers, blows things up or other noisy activities, Beni gets so scared he tries to get on my lap.  He just goes crazy.  I think he got scared of the lightning and thunder and got lost.  Kevin called and called but he didn't come.  Mark and I were driving home from a wonderful anniversary dinner (28 years!) in Park City when we got the worried call from Kevin.  We drove up and got his car at the top of Suncrest (Kevin made it down and drove up and started down again to look for Beni). We left his car at the Equestrian Park and then we drove to the top of roads and called and called but no Beni.  By now it was dark and rainy. Kevin got stuck in the mud and it took him 2 hours to get down dragging his heavy mud laden bike, but no Beni.  We came home to a quiet house, Patrick was spending the night at his cousin Justin's.  I was really glad he didn't know about Beni being lost. I went to bed about 12:15 and still no sign of Beni.  Kevin and Malorie went out again at about 1:00 am and called and looked but no sign of Beni.  Kevin didn't sleep worrying about that dog. To give some perspective, it takes a pretty good mountain biker about 2 hours up and back on these trails and the base of Corner Canyon is about 4 miles from our house, so he covered lots of miles last night.  I heard voices at about 5:00 am and it was still dark.  I came out to the kitchen and there was Mark talking to Beni saying "we didn't know you were so smart" and stuff like that.  Beni was a little dirty but happy, and home safe and sound.  I left the back door unlocked just in case he made it home.  (He can open it but I can't train him to close it after he comes in.)  He didn't even try to come in but was just sitting there by the door when Mark got up.  Mark said "I wish he had a dogcam so that could see how he made it home".  I was also worried about him crossing 13th if he did make it that far.  It is a busy road and I thought someone would hit him.  Did he stop and wait?  Was it so late that he didn't need to?  How in the world did he find his way in the total dark.  The only answer is "He is smarter than we thought".