LOST Lake....

Will I ever learn? I've run that trail a million times. A few years ago we showed up for the training session and it was already dark, but I took the team out anyway. I got lost. I was on the trail for 2 hours, covering 12 miles and didn't get back into camp until 11pm. Like I said, that was a few years ago and I'm older and wiser now. At least I'd like to think so.....
We pulled up in the day light, but between Lynzie and I, we had 5 teams to run. It was dark by the time I was able to get out. For some reason, I still wanted to run. I ran the hounds first and realized I was in over my head. We were doing the trail backwards and couldn't see any of the trail markers, so I only ran them a mile- point 5 down and point 5 back. I couldn't see so we were only going 12pmh. Long story short, they were pissed. Anyway, the sibes were next. I figured I'd take them further because it wouldn't be as hectic and I honestly thought I'd have no problem recognizing the trail. I asked Lynzie what trail she used for her teams. She told me she found an unmarked loop out there that was around 2 miles. "Unmarked" should have been my first clue....
I took off with Oakley, Roary, June, and Brother. Roary was up there with Oak, but I was mainly relying on Oakley.
The first few turns made sense and jived with what Lynzie told me she had done. We were on the main trail, simply ignoring the little turn-off. But, after a few more swerves, all bets were off. We were going 9pmh...a respectable speed for the mixture of talent in the team, but a speed that I knew should have put us further into the two miles that we were. We came to a building where a definitive turn was needed. Lynzie had said to go Haw at "a building." We did. Just after that left, the trail emptied out, at least seemingly, into an opening. I couldn't see where we were supposed to be headed. It looked to me that we were in a parking area or turn around of some type, but Oakley was hitting her line diagonally forward to the right. I decided to trust her. I simply gave the machine some gas and watched as she put her nose to the ground and swung to the right. I let her.
We wound up on a very clear trail- things were looking up. We took a few more loopy turns and swerved with the trail. At this point, I knew I could never remember the trail if I tried to turn us around, so our only option was forward. I reasoned that at least someone would know if we went missing (aka if we took more than 20 minutes or so to run 2 damn miles) and that I had all night and capable dogs, so I had nothing to lose. We ran for a few more minutes. I'm not going to lie....I almost started to panic.
I mean, c'mon....it was dark. It was very dark. It's a HUGE park...we could have run all night without recognizing a thing. Plus, I've done it before! We continued to run. The main trail turn left, if only slightly, twice. There were TONS of trails that branched off, but She ingnored them all. I honestly thought at one point we had gone in a circle. I stopped the team to turn them around, thinking for SURE that I'd missed something. I ended up shrugging and telling myself to knock it off. I openly asked aloud if I would be this worried in the daylight and decided I wouldn't be....and so I kept trusting Oakley.
You know what happened? I noticed a twinkling of lights off to my right. I knew that if they came from camp, then I could get my barrings. The trail kept swerving and I gave Oakley no direction. I was still really, very nervous. I reasoned that Oak could surely smell the trail a thousand times better than I could see it. I just kept the machine going.
I saw more twinkling lights, still to my right. The surface of the trail changed. I wanted to believe that I recognized a few things, but I refused to allow myself to get my hopes up....in case we really did have to spend a few more hours out there. I had actually considered yelling for help or unhooking the line from the 4wheeler and cutting through the woods with the dogs directly towards the lights.
The dogs sped up. That meant only one thing. THEY COULD HEAR CAMP. Oakley put her nose to the ground around the last corner and we climbed a hill. I heard dogs and generators. We were back. She cut through the camp ground and found the truck.
Lynzie asked what took so long and wondered if we had gotten lost. She said she was going to wait a few more minutes before she really started to worry. I replied, "Yeah, I felt pretty lost. I have no idea what trail we took, but I do know that Oakley's definitely a leader."