Trying Out: The High Road (Week Forty-Three)

I get lost.  I am rather tired of the three or four hikes I always take.  However it keeps search and rescue folks from yelling at me.  Better safe than sorry?

Numerous times I have thought, “Surely I know this way.  It borders some streets that I know.  If nothing else, it borders a street that borders a street.  That is close enough, right?”

A trick I had to learn in college.  It helps to have skyscrapers in the distance that you can navigate to from miles away.

A few weeks ago, I found myself ready to walk back from the library.  Now, the route I have been taking is perfectly fine.  There is a sidewalk almost the entire way.  (If you count gravel as a path, then it works.)  Only one real crosswalk light to slow me down for two and a half miles.  A walking trail is visible on the other side of the road.  Honestly, it is a rather pleasant stroll.

But I wanted different.  In theory I could walk up a hill instead of traveling all the way around it.  I was pretty sure it might even be faster.

It was.  By quite a bit.  Two and a half miles was cut down to two.  A twenty-five minute stroll wash slashed down to fifteen minutes.

No crosswalk lights to wait for.  No semi-trucks barreling alongside me.  I even have had a cute female greet me.

Then there was the view.

Faster, shorter, calmer, more scenic.  Assuming one does not get lost (ahem), it turns out that there is value in taking the high road.