Took da nephew to find a couple of boxes today. Then we stopped at a park that is new to us to scout possible plant spots. Wow, it gets dark out there in a quick hurry this time of year! Good thing I had the flashlight. And my compass. That way I knew the car was ...that way. In the opposite direction from the way we were headed. Yes, we could have just turned around and gone the way we came, but it was a long way and had been a little slippery when it was light. I didn't think I wanted to attempt it in the dark. And all trails loop around to where they started, right? Eventually? HA!
Since I'm typing this you know we made it. But only after cutting across a gravel access road, somebody's yard and down another road where we found the main road about a mile down from where we parked.
The moral of the story? Find out a little about the park before you decide to go hiking around at dusk in the middle of December in Illinois. But I wasn't lost.
Stacy

My daughter and I did the same thing at a park in the Cumberland Mountain region of Tennessee. We ended up coming out of the woods onto the road about 1 1/2 miles from where we parked. We were able to walk the road to the truck, but we were merely directionally embellishing, and getting our fair share of exercise

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we were merely directionally embellishing, and getting our fair share of exercise

My sister and I usually directionally embellish in the beginning of our journey. We like to refer to it as a "warm-up hike". "But I thought you had the clues" or "I forgot my camera" or "I thought it was the blue trail that we were supposed to take" are our some of our secret code phrases for such an adventure.

FG