Nice weather today, so we headed out for a ride today, following the map and a rough GPS trail I made with imperfect information, so I wasn’t expecting much, particularly since the second half was on a dirt and gravel forest road. We started out fine, hitting the first intersection marker with no problem, but from there it dramatically changed. According to the map, at the first intersection, you could turn right to follow the utility line, or keep straight for a nice loop we planned to take. Too bad that wasn’t true. NOT on the map was that the trail that went straight ahead was NOT the trail that went to the loop, it was a completely different trail that went down the mountain straight to Route 233! What the map apparently MEANT to indicate was that you had to follow the trail to the utility line, THEN go straight across the clearing to pick up the trail, or turn right to stay on the utility line. So we ended up going all the way down the mountain, looking for the right turn that would keep us on the loop we planned, backtracking twice from the main road, since the map clearly showed we weren’t supposed to cross the road. Eventually, we decided we’d rather go forward than back, so we crossed the road and climbed a hill on the other side until we met up with a forest road. After analyzing the forest map again, we headed right down the road, hoping it would loop back around to 233 again, with a trail that would eventually take us back to camp. We ran into a couple of guys in a truck passing by, and they confirmed the road we were on was right, but to make sure we turned right at the first intersection and that would take us back to 233. We did so, downhill once again until we hit the road, and fortunately, there was a nice looking multi-use trail straight across. There was a dirt-biker who headed straight up the trail ahead, so we turned into a camping area off to the right, hoping to find another way to reach the horse trail. My trusty horse Apollo found a skinny little trail that went straight uphill for five or six strides, then connected with what looked like an official trail, so we made a right and headed uphill and northwest, estimating that would take us in the right direction. We climbed fairly steep and rocky trails, with my Apollo getting a bit frustrated with the footing as he tends to do, but we finally reached the top of the mountain, and finally arrived back at the utility line! We crossed the clearing and momentarily arrived back at Intersection Marker 1 again, when we realized, at last, just how far off the map was, and therefore we were. It seems our return route was the route we had planned to go out on. Once again, a state forest with lousy maps and lousy trail markers! It’s hard to believe that this is such a widespread problem, but the inefficiencies at this level are remarkable. Kind of makes you wonder if bureacracies are this sloppy at this level, can we really expect they are any better at the higher levels of government? I doubt it... Anyway, although we hated the fact we got lost and didn’t know where we were most of the time, at least we were riding, and that’s always a good thing!
Nice weather today, so we headed out for a ride today, following the map and a rough GPS trail I made with imperfect information, so I wasn’t expecting much, particularly since the second half was on a dirt and gravel forest road. We started out fine, hitting the first intersection marker with no problem, but from there it dramatically changed. According to the map, at the first intersection, you could turn right to follow the utility line, or keep straight for a nice loop we planned to take. Too bad that wasn’t true. NOT on the map was that the trail that went straight ahead was NOT the trail that went to the loop, it was a completely different trail that went down the mountain straight to Route 233! What the map apparently MEANT to indicate was that you had to follow the trail to the utility line, THEN go straight across the clearing to pick up the trail, or turn right to stay on the utility line. So we ended up going all the way down the mountain, looking for the right turn that would keep us on the loop we planned, backtracking twice from the main road, since the map clearly showed we weren’t supposed to cross the road. Eventually, we decided we’d rather go forward than back, so we crossed the road and climbed a hill on the other side until we met up with a forest road. After analyzing the forest map again, we headed right down the road, hoping it would loop back around to 233 again, with a trail that would eventually take us back to camp. We ran into a couple of guys in a truck passing by, and they confirmed the road we were on was right, but to make sure we turned right at the first intersection and that would take us back to 233. We did so, downhill once again until we hit the road, and fortunately, there was a nice looking multi-use trail straight across. There was a dirt-biker who headed straight up the trail ahead, so we turned into a camping area off to the right, hoping to find another way to reach the horse trail. My trusty horse Apollo found a skinny little trail that went straight uphill for five or six strides, then connected with what looked like an official trail, so we made a right and headed uphill and northwest, estimating that would take us in the right direction. We climbed fairly steep and rocky trails, with my Apollo getting a bit frustrated with the footing as he tends to do, but we finally reached the top of the mountain, and finally arrived back at the utility line! We crossed the clearing and momentarily arrived back at Intersection Marker 1 again, when we realized, at last, just how far off the map was, and therefore we were. It seems our return route was the route we had planned to go out on. Once again, a state forest with lousy maps and lousy trail markers! It’s hard to believe that this is such a widespread problem, but the inefficiencies at this level are remarkable. Kind of makes you wonder if bureacracies are this sloppy at this level, can we really expect they are any better at the higher levels of government? I doubt it... Anyway, although we hated the fact we got lost and didn’t know where we were most of the time, at least we were riding, and that’s always a good thing!
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