Chestnuts

Left the house with Sadie around 2:30 PM going up the Red Circle, as always. We got to the Green and turned right, bound for Hezkiah's Nob. But somehow I missed it! They may revoke my Giant Master status if this gets out. My vague plan had been to take White from the Nob to Chestnut and back by Orange.

Anyway, at some point, I think at the "big bend", I realized we had missed it and changed destinations. I hesitated when we crossed Red Square and also at Blue. I'm not sure why I rejected Red Square but Blue we had done recently. So I decided to go out to Chestnut and back home via Orange as originally planned.

I noticed that Sadie was already panting and at one point she sat down in the trail. To be fair, she had done a lot of running off the trail after the ubiquitous chipmunks and squirrels. But we were only a little over 30 minutes out. Even so, I called home and asked someone to pick her up at Chestnut.

We got to the trailheads around 3:20 or so based on the fact that my call home was at 3:12. Emily showed up in a minute or 2 and took Sadie back home.

I walked over to the trail map to consider my options but decided on the Orange, again, as originally planned. But when you're just drifting through life, it kind of pushes you in other directions. I knew Yellow headed off far to the left so I just assumed Orange was next. It didn't take long for my keen powers of observation to realize that I was on the horse trail.

I thought about turning back but then I realized that the horse trail must be the one that goes all the way down to the Chestnut Plantation. I had only been there once or twice before and had considered making my way down there a few times in the past. It didn't take a lot to convince me that this was a good time because I had been concerned about Sadie stepping on the spiky shells littering the ground down there.

So I proceeded down to the Chestnut Plantation. I think it was eerier last time because it was in the fading light of day. I picked up a few chestnuts and headed back home via the roads.