Just north of the starting marker for the quest, at 45, 41, northwest of Hero's Rest, is a Y junction that 3 roads branch out from. Just keep sending [npc=161270] out from this central point and return to it after looting. He won't run far enough to get you into trouble and it makes looting easy and efficient.
I also found it easier if you let [npc=161270] run off on his own after using [spell=314037]. You can usually see the [npc=167828] spawn ahead of him and run straight to it, rather than follow [npc=161270] who doesn't always know exactly where the item is. He also seems to bug out a lot if you run with him, forgetting he's meant to be finding items and rejoins you at your side. Never seems to fail when you send him out like a truffle pig on his own.