Stop Behaving Like A Trail Horse On Its Way Back To The Barn

Instead, take the random right turn and see where it gets you.

Have you ever gone on a horseback trail ride?

Trail horses plod along slowly in a single-file line, almost on autopilot. But the minute you turn around to head back to the barn it’s as if someone jabbed an adrenaline shot of rocket fuel into their butts. Instantly, they perk their ears and pick up the pace, excited to get home.

I’m a road-tripper. I live at the foot of the Canadian Rockies, so it’s easy to get away for long weekends without breaking a sweat.

Sometimes I feel like a trail horse heading home after a weekend away. As soon as my trip wraps up I tend to make a beeline for home, mashed into a steady stream of highway traffic filled with other weekend warriors.

However, on my last getaway, I chose to try something different.

You know when you’re on the highway and see those random little road signs pointing down the most obscure woodsy roads that look like only Deliverance could be at the end of the path?

Well, I saw a sign called Dog Lake and decided to take a right turn…toward deliverance.

I chose to take the Dog Lake turn because I was travelling with my dog. Yes…really. 😁 I thought it would be fun to find a hidden lake and let her take a dip before trail-horsing it home.

The road leading into the woods was narrow and densely lined by trees. I’m pretty sure I was expecting to eventually drive right up to a shoreline of a magical turquoise mountain lake, sort of like the time I went to Emerald Lake a few years ago.

You can imagine my disappointment at the end of the road when I found nothing but a small turnaround point and a 3-kilometre trail sign pointing to Dog Lake.

I didn’t come equipped for hiking. Plus, it was bear season. And…deliverance. Nope.

However, if I hadn’t taken that turn on a crisp October day, I would’ve never seen any of this:

Who knew I could spend 45 minutes in a gravel parking lot simply taking pictures of NOTHING, yet everything simultaneously? I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was in there! It was like a Canadian version of Narnia.

If I had chosen to be like a trail horse, I would’ve driven right past the Dog Lake sign, just like I’ve driven by every other road sign a hundred times on the TransCanada highway.

Had I been prepared for a hike (with stuff like bear spray, granola bars, flare guns, and

Erik Hogan

by my side 😁), I would’ve eventually happened upon Dog Lake at the end of the 3-kilometre trail.

Image courtesy of On-Top.ca

This random little detour reminded me of all the times in my past when I always chose to “exit stage right” and venture down every obscure fork in the road that I could find.

Had I not said yes to hiking in the Jamaican mountains to see what a hidden marijuana farm looked like, I would’ve never found myself underground in secret caves that only locals knew about.

FUN FACT: We almost died of smoke inhalation in that cave because we thought it would be quaint to light a fire and stay awhile 😂 Pro tip…don’t light fires in underground caves with no ventilation.

Video proof of our near-death experience 😁:

Had I not said YES when my Jamaican landlord invited me to his family home in Siloah, St. Elizabeth, I would have never driven through miles of sugarcane crops to find this ICY COLD and brilliant blue waterhole ‘somewhere’ on the Appleton rum estate.

Had I not kidnapped a complete stranger and said yes to letting him sleep in my house for a night, he may have had the shittiest vacation ever. I could have just done the trail horse thing again and hit the road by myself. Instead, I chose a minor plot twist just so I could change a man’s day and his opinion:

If we only ever behaved like trail horses and chose the familiar, well-traveled roads, imagine all the magic we’d miss out on?

When was the last time you turned right? And what did you find at the end of the path?