Maps, mud, water, and rocks, Shaken but not Stirred - Part 1 of 2

It was just last Sunday and I was at one of my favorite trails, Blue Mountain. A place that I hadn't been to in a couple of months, which was reason enough for me to bring a map. This is one of those trails that I normally get a little disoriented on. I suppose, it's because of the many loops and fast descents. I blow past all the turn offs and when I get to a clearing, I stop, look around, and whip out the map. I'm not sure why I look at the map, because the markers on the trail don't match the map! Blue Mountain is kind of like the Twilight Zone. You go down a trail expecting to come out in one place and end up somewhere unexpected. It's happed so many times to me that I actually enjoy that sense of "Wow, how did I end up here." I'm sure there is an explanation for this phenomenon. A hiker told me, that back in the forties the military performed experiments with magnetic field generators. The rumor is that the experiments caused tears in spaces and time.

Nonetheless, I still pretend that the map has a use, and it does. If a hiker or another rider comes by I ask if they know the trail, and point to the map to show that I'm not that stupid because after all, I've got a map. I've come here with friends who think they can read the map and the difference is that we still end up lost but spend more time standing around looking at a piece of paper that some joker made and less time on our bikes riding. It really is the trail, and not me. In spite of the navigation problems, Blue Mountain is still one of my favorite places to ride but I have digressed!

It had rained for a few days earlier in that week, so the trail was a little wet and the fall leaves made it looked like a multi colored carpet covering the woods. So much so, that it was hard to tell where the mountain bike trails ended and the deer trails started. I was following what thought was a mountain bike trail. I soon found myself off the beaten trail and out in the middle of nowhere. I stopped, looked around and I saw a cairn pointing north.

Everyone may not be familiar with term "cairn". A cairn is a heap of stones, setup as a landmark by hikers and trail blazers in locations where no other marker is available. The stones are usually stacked so that every other stone points in the directions that trail travels.

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