Ten-Mile Saturday Loop

99% of the time, Google Maps guides me very, very well. It tells me where I’m at, it tells me which way to go, how far I have to go, and usually, what the road ahead of me looks like. Digital maps have been indispensable to me across the miles, especially when a local tells me that location XYZ is only a mile away, after a left turn and two right turns, and I quickly learn that XYZ is actually five or more miles away, after a right turn and two lefts.
I have to stop shy of saying that the maps reliably guide me 100% of the time, however, as there have been a couple of bridges on G Maps that haven’t actually existed, and occasionally what looks like a road on the map is, at best, a grassy trail– sometimes on private property.

Road to… somewhere (??)

Case in point: Today.
It’s a good thing that today’s ten mile loop was simply a leisure walk, for if I’d had my Chariot, there’s no way I would have made it through. Google Maps guided me miles up a road which slowly turned into a dead end. Where I met this dead end, Google actually showed a narrowing road that still connected to a larger loop. This narrowing road, however, was no more than a gated, grass-covered trail that led to a dirt power-line road, crossing a couple of hills and a creek (without any bridge) in the process.

In the interest of spending time outdoors, soaking up the PERFECT 70-degree weather, and keeping my body in solid shape for Monday’s 14 miles to Kenbridge, the fact that today’s miles were merely leisure miles worked out perfectly– for I rarely get to walk trails or go on other nature excursions, and I was free of my beloved-yet-cumbersome Chariot– so I couldn’t be more satisfied.

Today would have been tremendously taxing if I had been on the trail with the Chariot– especially at the creek. However, even if that had been the case, I would still be giving Google Maps a solid “A” for having led me well through so many confusing webs of roads across the thousands of miles– including when G Maps have led me straight into “the Hood.”