Chicken John

Today I took my furry companion for a stroll through Willard Brook. I’ve always preferred loop trails because they are more interesting in my opinion, however, I realized today that hiking from point A to B and then from B to A is like two different paths if you put it out of your head that you hiked all this way to do a 180 and retrace your steps. In fact the woodland corridor was so different on the way back that I strayed from the trail and didn’t realize it until I came to an unfamiliar dirt road. I doubled back until I spotted the yellow blazes of the trail I was supposed to be on and my heart rate slowed. I told myself I was going to be the next, Chicken John, a character Bill Bryson encountered when he hiked the AT, who constantly got lost, and who occasionally hiked 30 miles off course. According to section hiker, Red, “you are dumber than a bag of rocks” if you can’t follow the trail, and he believes the maps are unnecessary because the trail is so well marked. In fact, every hiker I have interview has agreed on this point. However, although I'd like to say otherwise, the trail was very well marked today.