I think I may have had a bigger adventure than Chuck today. I’ve been in Portland, Maine attending a two-day meeting and before the meeting day starts have been going for a run. It’s really pretty here and the hotel I’m staying at and where the meeting is being held is right on the water –  there’s even miles of lovely trail (versus asphalt or concrete). Yesterday I went 2 miles out and then returned exactly the same way. All good.

This morning I got ambitious and decided to do 5 or 6 miles so I kept going, switching onto a different trail from the one I started on. The weather was great – no sun and lots of fog (really, that should have been a sign but I ignored it). Visibility was fine on the trail, but if you looked out on the water things got pretty fuzzy about twenty feet out. I was following a faster runner to push myself, listening to music and not paying attention to where I was going, other than keeping an eye on the water. About 2 1/2 miles into the run I took a serious look around and still saw water and buildings on the other side of the water – everything seemed copacetic. So I kept going until I hit about 3 miles and then I finally turned around. I was at this point at least a mile further along (and on a different trail) than the previous day’s run. After “turning around” I quickly realized that nothing was looking familiar. Uh oh. So I asked some ladies out walking if I was headed back to downtown Portland. They commented that I had come quite a ways but if I stayed on the path I would indeed reach Portland. I forgot to ask if I would reach it that day. So I kept going. And going. When I hit 6 miles I got a little panicky. My meeting was going to start soon, I had no idea where I was, I had no phone and no money. I did have my Road ID though so worst case scenario my body could have been identified.

Happily I saw a woman with a smartphone ahead of me and ran up and explained my plight. She had no idea where the hotel was but gamely looked it up. Before she showed me the map she muttered, “Uh oh,” which I translated to mean, “You are WAY off course!” When she showed me the map, I could see she was right. It turns out the trail I was on was a loop around the BAY (my “ocean water” aka a round body of water – memo to self: in future check a map before you go!) and I was about 2/3 of the way around the loop, a few miles from where I was supposed to be. Yes, just like Chuck before me I was going in a circle.

Some of our hardier running friends would have sucked it up and kept running, eventually finding the correct trail since I was actually going in the correct direction, just miles away from where I actually needed to be. But I instead copped out asked where I could catch a taxi. Happily that place wasn’t too far away so I ran into the street, flagged one down and explained to the driver that I was lost, had no money and needed to get back to the Residence Inn. He looked me up and down, decided I was telling the truth and 10 minutes later I was back at the hotel. Phew, a happy end to my big adventure!

The good news is that I was only a minute or two late for the meeting. Lesson learned. If I go out tomorrow I am SO taking my iPhone.

Meanwhile, Chuck made it to New Mexico without incident, stopping along the way to see the Very Large Array. He’s resting his butt for the return journey and already has a new pair of boots on order and will have them in hand (well, on foot)  for the ride home.