Getting Lost

Scary day running-wise.

I went to Clinton South Shore for another medium-long run (intended to about 7 miles).  I'm always a bit more cautious on that side of the lake, as it doesn't have the "easy outs" like the North Shore.  On the North Shore I can always get off the trail to a campground or the road, for a shortcut back to my car.

Not so much on the south side.  It's just farms and open fields in the area above the trails, and there's no easy way out for water, or to shortcut back to the car.

This morning my goal was to run a quick out and back on the orange trail-the one lowest on the ridge and closest to the lake.  The trail was in good condition and I hit my turn around at 3.5 miles in a little over half an hour.  I turned to head back-everything was still perfect, and about 1 mile from my end point I started to kick, figuring once I hit 7 miles I'd be back at the main trail connector to head up to my car.

My GPS beeped indicating 7 miles.  I stop and look around.. no trail connector in 200 yards either direction.  Oddly, I'm in the back of a deep cove, and I know the trail head is on more of a point. 

The problem was I couldn't tell if I had overshot my mark or undershot it, so I had no clue which direction to go.  I went forward, about another quarter to half a mile.  I hit another trail connector, and decided I'd be better off going to the top of the ridge so I could at least look around to see where I was... the meadow I came to looked familiar.. I had gone too far.  So I ran backwards on the trail.  Finally, to my car.

This wouldn't have seemed so bad, except I didn't have any water on me, and had pushed the pace more than I planned on the last part of my run, so I was feeling that extra mile or so. 

What I think happened: after the turn around I got off trail-briefly-but took an accidental shortcut that cut 300ish meters from my return trip.  When I was running by my normal stopping point, I had my head down trying to go fast to the point that I just missed all the signs.