About two and a half miles into today’s saunter, I made a costly navigation error. It was done with the best intentions when I took us off the road with narrow shoulders and put us on a bike path that should have been a slightly longer but much more pleasant experience.
I was strolling along mulling things over, and I guess I fell into some sort of trance. At the critical juncture where we should have turned south to regain our originally planned route, I angled off to my right and headed north. Fortunately for us, only a mile had passed before I thought to myself, “Self….you’ve been on this trail a lot longer than you thought you would. Maybe, I should check where we are.”
I looked at the map and rubbed my eyes. “That can’t be right. We’re not supposed to be this far north! What the….”
Pro tip: If you’re headed west in the morning the sun should be BEHIND you, and you should be able to see your shadow. If you’re supposed to be heading south, the sun should be on your LEFT hand side and not on your right.
Now when I make a mistake like this when I’m driving, I generally respond with some sort of “Well shoot….I wish I hadn’t done that.” Then I turn the car around and head back to my path and the situation is resolved in a very small handful of minutes.
When you make a one mile mistake when you’re walking….well, let’s just say that my response wasn’t quite as benign. Forty minutes of north-south motion, but no progress. Super frustrating.
All’s well that ends well, I suppose. As soon as we regained our intended path the signs of a pretty major amount of road construction started to appear. They were mostly orange.
Like the mistake with the wrong directions, our reaction to eight miles of road construction that entirely eliminates two lanes of a four lane highway were completely different than the reaction of the drivers.
Road construction on two lanes of a four lane highway means that we had a hiking trail TWO LANES wide all to ourselves! We’ve learned on this trip that the construction workers can’t be bothered by a couple of hikers as long as we stay out of their way, give a friendly wave and a greeting, and generally pretend like we belong right there in the middle of chaos with the front loaders, dump trucks, excavators, and vibratory rollers. We even used their Porta-Potties.
Dad Lovin’ on Some Roadwork
Unlike the long line of traffic stewing in its own exhaust and moving at a pace similar to our own, we had eight miles of pure bliss not worrying about the hurtling metal death machines careening in our general direction. Roadwork is the great equalizer between the hiker and the driver, and we loved it.
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