walking vacation, day four: "lost", louisville edition.

This morning I woke up and realized I had no car in Louisville. Crap. Without any kind of park, or volkssport walk, or the 100 mile Louisville Loop, were all out of the question. Then I remembered that there was a state park right across the street from the development. I'll go there.

I walked down to the park. Across the street turned out to be nearly a mile. (BTW, do you see the bad kerning on the sign?) I walk into the park, and immediately see the trail head. I was looking for Goosehead Creek Loop.

I entered the trail and immediately came to a second sign that read Goose Creek Loop. It was at a Y, and an arrow went both directions. I took the path left.

The nice path quickly turned to this. A path made by bikes. It wasn't long before it was covered with grass. And then the grass got higher. And then lower and then finally there was a clearing in the trees and another sign. This was the first sign I had seen since the first one. There were no blazes or little ribbons. Nothing.

The sign said trailhead to the right, and trail to the left. I went left and walked down the road until another sign. This one said Goose Creek Loop, I entered the woods. The road forked. No sign. I went right. The trail appeared to end. I turned around and went back. Took the other path. This was a clearer path, but also covered with grass. I followed it.

I kept following it, and nearly stepped on this fellow. I also saw two young bucks. I think that's when I got wandered off the trail. And then I fell in a hole. I had a hard time getting up. But I was up, and couldn't find the trail. My phone survived the fall, and I opened the geocaching app so I had a map of where I was. I was about 3/4 of the way around the park. Using the app, I started bush whacking.

Then I noticed the time and called my sister. I knew she'd be worried. I told her I'd be back in an hour. I could hear the cars on the parkway. I could see a clearing at the top of the hill. I told my sister to keep talking as I climbed up to the clearing. No parking lot. Shit.

The cars were louder. I was close. I told her I was going to walk toward the sound of the cars and would call back when I reached the road.

It was tough terrain, but I soon came out at a beautiful trail. Wide, clear, what a trail should be. The sound of the cars were right ahead. I called my sister and said I found the trail, I'd be back soon, but I wanted to follow the nice trail to see if I could figure out where I made my mistake. I followed it past a horse farm and to a development. Finally a sign. It said Goose Creek Loop. This was nothing like the Goose Creek Loop I started out on. Confused, I headed back out to the trail head and "home".

When I got home I dug around the net and discovered my issue. There was a Goose Creek TRAIL and a Goose Creek LOOP. One day I need to learn to read.

Wildlife count: 1 turtle, 2 young bucks.