My neighbor's hand-drawn map of the local hiking trail sent us 3 miles off course

Last Saturday I asked my neighbor for directions to the new loop trail behind Pine Ridge. He sketched this map on a napkin with a green pen and said the creek crossing was 'after the big oak.' We walked for an hour and ended up at someone's backyard shed with a barking dog. The creek was actually a dry gully and the big oak turned out to be a water tower. Has anyone else gotten lost from a map drawn by someone who 'knows the area'?

2 comments

2 Comments

noahward2d ago

You got a friend who can read a napkin map better than a GPS? My buddy took his kids on what was supposed to be a two-hour hike based on a neighbor's drawing. Four hours later they found a highway on-ramp.

hayden_rodriguez1d ago

My buddy tried that exact thing last summer with a "shortcut" drawn on a napkin by some guy at a gas station. Ended up three miles off trail near a drainage ditch with his kids complaining about blisters. @noahward, best advice I can give is tell your friend to snap a photo of the napkin map on his phone before heading out, at least then he can zoom in on the scribbles. Also pack some extra water and granola bars next time, cause that highway on-ramp is a classic wrong turn when you're following a greasy diner sketch.