Trust in the Prophets

Away from the chores and errands.  Away from the houses and streets.  Away from the schools and businesses.  Away from the interstates and highways.  Just outside a town with less people than my graduating class is a lovely state park.  The slow progression from highway to state road to county road is intentional.  It’s supposed to be away from modern infrastructure.  The journey is surprisingly quick and easy.  Visiting on a weekday while most people are working their day jobs and the children are in school doesn’t hurt the experience.

I arrived to find only a few signs directing me along the way.  I accidentally explored the fishing dock and separated boat ramp designed for those who wanted to be close to the water.  I had already missed the turn for the office, so I pressed on.  I found a sign for cross-country skiing and hiking trails.  I had missed it at first as I had not thought that the cross-country trails would overlap or intertwine with the hiking trials.  This is the Florida part of my brain at work again.  I finally found a little parking lot with a sign that described the length of each trail. 

My plan was to complete the 0.9-mile trail as I am “a bit out of shape” after a summer of computer games and YouTube videos.  I started my short (or so I thought) journey through the woods.  Signs at the beginning of the trail were numerous and I was looking out for the green mark on a tree or post as I went along.  At first, I wasn’t worried about it as there was one trail and no other paths to distract me.   I arrived at what must be the cross-country skiing path, however, there was no clear sign of the continuation of the trail.  I decided to go a little bit to the left to see what I could find.  This would be a pattern I followed for the rest of experience. 

Each time I came to a split in the trail (with no signs), I just kept going.  My gut feeling was that it was a loop and if I didn’t hit a sign at a certain point, I could easily turn around and backtrack to the beginning.  I found a sign that had a 1.25-mile marker on it facing the opposite direction.  I decided to turn around to see where this trail would lead.  I was lucky to locate a post with a green mark on it.  I found this interesting as I thought I was already on the green trail, and the longer trails would branch off it. 

Then I came to a 0.25 marker for the green trail.  Once again, I figured I was too far into the loop of trails to turn back, so I pressed on.  I had a nice even marker every quarter mile until I hit the ¾ mile mark.  It was at the corner of a tree line and a large farming field.  There was a path in both directions. 

I had pretty much lost track of the amount of “which direction should I go now” decisions, so again, I gave myself a limit.  Hike to the end of the tree line and if I didn’t see another sign, turn around.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the next trail marker.  Again, I arrived at the large open road / trail with no directions.  I saw a trail that continued, but I also saw the asphalt road of the State Park.  I decided to investigate before going deeper into the woods again.  I am glad I did as it was the connection (or at least the forced connection) to the start of the trail.  I assume I took the incorrect turn (or several) along the way to make the journey much longer and more difficult than it needed to be. 

I did the same thing in a different park a few years back where I crossed a creek and ended up jumping trials and had to do a full backtrack by memory.  I was very happy to see my car parked exactly where I left it. I was happy I made it and didn’t have to call a park ranger to come find me.  It was never really that serious, but your brain goes to dark places when you get lost a few times within an hour.  I had thought more than once about how my phone might be tracking me but wasn’t sure if that would be helpful in getting back to my car.  I did check it at the end of my journey.

As you can see, I did an odd path to get around and back to my starting point, but it worked…somehow.  I also walked 4.6 miles instead of one.  This explains why I was a little bit tired.  I also didn’t need my jacket after the first 15 minutes as the weather had warmed up, even under the shade of the trees.

Even while being lost, I did enjoy myself. It was sufficiently quiet on the trail.  The only sounds were a boat getting to a good fishing spot on the lake.  After that, all I heard was the birds and the wind.  This has always been a sore point with me as a lot of hiking trails in more crowded areas always have noise from airplanes, trains, and cars disturbing the peaceful trees.  I know that they are trying to add more green space, especially in more populated areas, but I think it loses the effect when there is a lot of noise.  I also went to a larger / more popular location about a year ago and it was so crowded that day that it didn’t feel like nature.  It felt like a really long line to a concert with trees around you.

I will be visiting Clinton Lake again as the actual trail was very nice. I think with a map, I would not get so lost next time.  It also looks like you can camp and even hunt as well (if one was into that sort of thing) . 😊