Lost In My Own Backyard

In my last post I talked about the beauty and splendor of walking in the lake park near my home. I do need to amend that with a small discussion of what happened to me when I walked there yesterday. What you may not know about me is that I tend to make bad decisions when it is just me involved. So Giles and I walked along the path, disturbing spiders and enjoying the view, and it dipped down near the lake. I wanted to get close to the lake so Giles could get a drink, after all it was hot and he's all covered with black fur. As I edged closer to the lake I slipped on some loose rocks and landed on my left side while sliding down the embankment. I didn't land in the water, but now sport a large bruise where I landed on my cell phone that was in my pocket. I also scraped my elbow pretty bad and re-injured my bad knee.
So I thought it might be better to take a shortcut back home. A shortcut that ended up taking me way longer than it would have if I had just walked back home.
I skirted the lake hoping to find a path on the other side that would take me home, after all that side of the lake park runs up against the properties of my neighbors across the street. I guess I just didn't think about how large the lake park is. As you can see by the attached map I was a lot further from home than I thought.



The star burst is my house, the big blues circle is where I thought I was, the orange circle is where I actually was. Woods are surprisingly large when you are lost in them. Red Riding Hood's mom was right, "Never Stray from the Path". Luckily my brains weren't totally fried, I did (eventually) find my way back to a path that I recognized and got home sweaty, dirty, and covered in spiders and spider webs.