Spent 6 hours rerouting a trail near Boulder that I could have marked in 2

I was out scouting a new section of the Indian Peaks route last weekend and found a massive deadfall blocking the path. Figured I'd mark a quick bypass, but then I started second guessing every turn and ended up hiking back and forth through the same thick brush for like 6 hours. Turned out the obvious route was fine the whole time, I just overthought it cause I didn't want to lead people into a swamp. Has anyone else wasted a whole day on a simple detour that should have taken an hour?

2 comments

2 Comments

lilyt9010d ago

Waste half a weekend second-guessing myself on a trail once too. I think it's part of this bigger pattern where we're all so worried about messing up for other people that we freeze and make everything worse. Your mileage may vary, but I've noticed it at work, at home, even just planning dinner with friends. We get so caught up in avoiding a tiny risk that we end up creating a bigger mess. It's like that saying about how doing something is usually better than doing nothing at all. Take this with a grain of salt, but sometimes the obvious path is the right one.

michaelcoleman10d ago

lol that "overthought it cause I didn't want to lead people into a swamp" hits too close to home. Buddy of mine did the same thing on the Continental Divide Trail last summer, spent 4 hours bushwhacking around a bog that looked sketchy but was actually bone dry the whole time.