The Donner Party

When the weather is not brutally hot, our favorite weekend activity is "hiking" (AKA relatively short walks in wooded areas). The last 6 months have been a bit a of a challenge because Jackson no longer wants to be carried in a backpack, so our progress is incredibly slow. Every few feet he either trips and cries, stops to kick some moss, or, inexplicably, walks backward. Even when he does let us carry him, 29 pounds on your hip or shoulders gets heavy pretty quickly.
So today we decided to explore a "nature trail" that we had not done before. At the beginning, we lightheartedly noted that the trail was so covered in fall leaves that it was difficult to follow. But like the heroine in a horror movie that just can't resist going into the basement when she hears a spooky sound, we proceeded anyway. Predictably, we lost the trail within 20 minutes. We didn't really want to turn back because we doing so would mean a longer walk back to the bathrooms and car. So we plugged along, stopping frequently to say, "this sort of looks like a trail, doesn't it?" and "I'm pretty sure we're headed in the right direction anyway, aren't you?" Just when our jokes about cannibalism were starting to give way to real desperation (I had to go to the bathroom really badly), we came up on the paved trail and made our way home. Disaster averted. I would say "lesson learned" except this isn't the first time this has happened to us, so I'm guessing it won't be the last either. Some people never learn.