Louis

1st Prize

Doohickie

Now stop right there, and tell me about 16 Mile Road (aka Quarton, Big Beaver, Metro Parkway, etc.) in Detroit.

Doohickie

Yeah, we never let nk lead our breakfast rides.

Jim from Boston

Good point, but the road itself travels in a distinctively straight east-west line and is well marked, so if you are going in a specific direction it is nearly impossible to get lost. In Massachusetts, the name change is often not marked when it begins and may well not be marked at a following intersection at a subtle acute angle where it is easy to take the wrong fork.

If you mean tell you about the road conditions, that thoroughfare is a mostly a wide, divided high speed highway with a gravel shoulder over much of its length. There is a bike path for about 8 miles or so. I am less familiar with it in the well-heeled Oakland County suburbs, where I think it narrows down, but I'm not sure it has a paved shoulder, so I presume you have to take the lane. On other than the MUP, I probably wouldn't be riding it and wouldn't worry about getting lost.

cyclezealot

The suburbs is the most likely place to get lost. Those big circles in the suburbs can make one dizzy. Often when I go on recreational jaunts, I don't care if I get lost. I am just exploring. As long as I get home before dark. Yes. That has happened a couple times. On those kinds of days, when you have no agenda. Just riding to where ever.

Retro Grouch 

EXACTLY!

You got disoriented, met some new helpful prople, eventually found your way back, and now you have a great story to tell. What could be better?

Kai Winters

"Boston Mountains"???

I have become lost a few times when riding a lot farther than usual. I usually just ask someone to point in the general direction of the city I lived in and off I go. I think the worst was an hour of "lost time" making for a 4 hour ride. I always carry my celly so a quick call home eased worries and I got a great 4 hour training ride out of it and learned of some nice new roads. Win win !

RonH

I've only gotten lost twice.
First time when I was doing my first metric century in 2000. This was before I got a cell phone. I missed a marker on the road at about the 55 mile point and rode about 4 miles before realizing what had happened. Decided to turn left (south) at the next intersection because I knew the finish was that direction, toward the sun. Never found any other riders or markers so turned around and rode back to the turn and the last marker I saw and continued on from there. Sadly I was one of the last to finish. Can't figure how that happened.

The second time I got lost was last December. I was riding the CX bike on one of the local mtn bike trails. It was only my second time on that trail. After about 1.5 hours I decided to head back to the car. I took what I thought was the correct trail. I eventually crossed the same bridge twice and passed the same rock formation three times. So I stopped, looked around and walked the bike through the woods to another trail I could see off in the distance. Followed that one for a while until I finally saw what looked like the trail that lead to the parking area. A few minutes later I was at the car. Whew!

leob1

Sometimes, that's the whole point of the ride. Some of my best days on the bike contained the line "Where the hell am I ?"

Retro Grouch 

Ah, a fellow member of the Fugawi tribe.

StanSeven

I'm a runner as well. Many years ago in my marathon training, I got lost. I stopped at a trailor office for a new housing development and asked the salesperson for directions. His response was "you came from where?"

I ended up more than eight miles from home.

BlazingPedals

And if you do get directions, then you're not lost *anymore.* I guess you can only get lost retroactively.

leob1

Member? I'm the Fuga Chief!

bikegeek57

Got 'almost lost' this weekend. Blame it on bad computer generated maps. While I was editing a couple turns I snagged the wrong data point to drag and drop onto the correct path. However the trip notes told me to go left instead of right after I made that adjustment and well the rest is history. This happened 3 times on the route. So I went back to route app and zoomed into the map to the max and yup there the bad turns were plain as day. Next time I go with a computer map and notes I'll double check to be sure I have checked my edits. Oh and I hate getting lost. the better half was expecting me at specific time. I was only 30 minutes late which I thought was pretty good. Wife did not think so. I guess my 'almost lost' counts as lost as I still caught heck. Hah! learned a new way home though.

BluesDawg

As in, "we're the..."

cranky old dude

Having spent 57+ years in this same small geographic area, I'ld have to be a much stronger cyclist than I am to get far enough away to get lost. You see, all of my rides originate from home.

That being said I often get into such an introverted state that I kind of "zone out" when riding. I often come to my senses several miles after what was intended to be my next turn. So I tend to get lost in my thoughts and end up re-routing an already loosly planned journey.

Pamestique 

I have but not often.

In 2007 I did a trip though Montana. On the second to last day, with the temperatures 108 degrees, the route was scheduled for 92 miles with lots of climbing. I took off early, at sunrise, to beat the heat. The first mistake was missing the turn and riding 8 miles out of town. I knew this wasn't right, checked my map and then turned around went back. "Oh there's the turn!" (she exclaims after seeing it was very obvious - I must have been day dreaming)... and now 16 miles extra out of the way, I am on route.

Fast forward another 2 hours, sun's is up. It's hot and windy. I start this long climb. It goes for 4 miles. At the summit I realize I am at the start of a major highway. Mmmmm I don't remember them mentioning a highway. I rode another mile... now things seem wrong especially since no one was passing me. Checked the map. Dang, missed another turn, at the bottom of the hill. Turned around and went back down. The good thing is I was able to tell 3 other people they also missed the turn.

Now on another climb (this one much prettier but steeper) I felt better but I was now 26 miles extra into the day and it was hot and water was precious. At mile 72 (which was my mile 98) after running out of water and bonking bad I quit and sagged in. That'll teach me for not paying attention!!!

Pamestique 

I also have another funny story (or 10) - the first time my girlfriend and I tried to ride mountain bikes in Mammoth Lakes, CA. We had a general idea where to go. Let's just say it was a long, and frustrating day. We were so lost. Totally trail brazing - through trees and over forest debris - lions and tigers and bears oh my! The only saving grace is that we could see Mammoth mountain and knew we had to ride back towards it. Our little "quick" little ride went about 40 miles and 8 hours.

Another time mountain biking by buddy and we decided to check out a trail we had never ridden. Let's just say that turned into Gillian's 3 hours tour. We planned to be out 2 hours, was out 6, went from one side of Orange County to the other and had to get back. We had no snacks, little water and no money. That was a lesson learned.

Condorita

Isn't that what riding's about?

Up the SGRT to the Rio Hondo junction, then up the Rio Hondo to wherever. Past the 10, past some model airplanes park, as far as the nursery. It was getting late, so I started back. Wanna try that one again with an earlier start. Just to see where it goes.

Tom Bombadil

I've helped 4 or 5 people to find their way when they were lost on RAIL TRAILS!!!

A couple of those were rails that had a grand total of one intersection with another trail over their entire length and these people had missed it.

oldster

[QUOTE= Big Beaver, [/QUOTE]

Yea,,,,,,,,,, I got lost there once..........................

Bud

rubic

I have been lost and turned around in the suburbs and foothills on occasion while riding. But the worst "lost" experience happened while driving. I drove to a convention at a hotel in downtown Los Angeles and parked near the top of the parking structure. Being familiar with LA I never thought I could get lost. Later at night when I left, I drove down the parking structure on a spiral exit going around and around and around. When I got to the street, I didn't recognize a thing and there were no street signs. So I just started driving until I could find something familiar. The city at night was dark and foreign, I didn't recognize a thing. It was like a Batman movie. Ask for directions? Ha! Nobody, no way. Finally after driving a few miles I found a familiar land mark and made my way home.

OK, maybe this was not a cycling "lost" experience but it was certainly my worst.

PS. This was in the days before GPS. I'm sure everybody on the 50+ forums remembers those days.

Kai Winters

I am Chief Dirty Neck of the famous NoWash tribe.
I also belong to the wherethefugami club of America.

gear

I like getting lost, I intentionally try and get lost, its one my favorite things to do on a bike.

Tom Bombadil

There have been days when I wished I was lost and no one could find me.