Today was very cold out. It started at about 17 degrees and increased to 23 by the end of our run. We figured we'd start at the Northern Terminus up in Branchville and finish at Warbasse Junction down in Lafayette. We left KK's car down in Lafayette right on Warbasse. The only problem with that is we couldn't actually find the beginning of the trail! Normally the beginning of the trail or a junction has a small parking area. This one....not so much. So up and down Mill street we drove. Finally we settled on pulling into a local chiropractor's office to see if he knew where it was. Well, he didn't but he did offer to let us park my car in his lot and the give us an adjustment on our return! Cool beans : )
The trial up north was nice. The scenery was gorgeous. Everything was white because some snow had fallen the night before. About .8 miles into the run, we come across a portion of the trail that is washed out. Back in August, our area was hit hard y Hurricane Irene. Whole neighborhoods were washed away and this part of the trail was in one of the hardest hit areas. Local hiking clubs have done a wonderful job in maintaining and the cleanup afterwards. So a wick up and over re-route and we were rolling again on the other side.
So the plan was to do about 5.56 miles to the car. We knew at some point that the Sussex Branch Trail and the Paulinskill Rail Trail crossed. The maps that I was able to get were crappy copies at best. So we got to the crossing and stayed straight, THINKING this would bring us out right behind the car. Yeah....no. We came out of the woods and PRESTO::::: NO CAR. Interesting. I asked, " Hey KK, where's your car?" To which she responded "Umm I don't know." So after a few moments of reflection and trying to get our bearings, we figured we had just come out too far up the road and by turning left up the road, we would be at the car in a few moments. No biggie, I say, because between the both of us, we have 4 strong legs and a cell phone. So off we went. We got about a 1/4 mile up the road and KK says "We went the wrong way, I'm pretty sure the car is back the other way". Ok, I say, let's go. So again, off we went. We pass right were we came out of the trail and we crest the hill. That's when we see the top of the Parking lot pavilion and TADAAA!!!! The car, the car! As we approach the car, I look to the right and guess what I see? You guessed it, the trail junction that we crossed as we THOUGHT we were continuing onto the parking lot.
After we were done laughing and composed ourselves, we figured out what had happened. When we crossed the junction, we should have looked 20 feet to our right and we would have seen the car. What we didn't think was that we had to actually TURN onto the Paulinskill Rail trail and then to the car.
Both our husbands, after hearing our funny story, were surprised that we were actually allowed out unsupervised and with homing devices attached to our shoes : )
Another run done, no casualties and all is good. Time on our feet is what we are looking for not pretty runs where everything goes well. Well , it did go well but funny is always better : )
