~13 miles @ ~16 min/mi

Happy Mother's Day! Friend Caren Jew is celebrating this Sunday morning with a ramble along her favorite trail, and we manage to get thoroughly lost in the woods. Not to worry (too much), though: my antique GPS tells us exactly where we are. So does a trailside sign that reads Mo's Cut, near tire tracks in the mud that indicate we're following a mountain bike path. We blunder onto it half an hour ago when I miss a turn at a meadow and lead us off the Catoctin Trail. After a while the absence of blue blazes and known landmarks clue us in to our clueless state.

Getting off course and discovering strange bike paths is a known talent of mine (cf. 2008-08-23 - Lost in the Woods and 2009-03-31 - Lost in the Woods Again), so I'm all for continuing forward—eventually it will all turn out OK, eh?—but Caren sensibly suggests, then insists, that we head back. We do, and soon thereafter find a side path that leads downhill to Gambrill Park Rd. A mile of speedy jogging along the gravel-and-dirt street takes us back to terra cognita. We figure out exactly where we went astray, then return uneventfully to Caren's car. We left it almost four hours earlier, at dawn.

See Caren's photo album for some images of the rocky terrain in this part of northern Maryland. High streams from heavy rains earlier in the week provide us with ample opportunity to get wet feet. The weather is cool and windy. We meet a dog-walker led by a matched pair of huge friendly boxers, and later some real live mountain bikers. It's a delightful day!

^z - 2009-05-13