Legend of the Odd Woods

         The trail I had been following came to a sudden end. No warning, no gradual overgrowth of plant material prior to the ending, just boom, end of trail. I looked back just to make sure I had not been sleep walking and left the trail. It was there behind me, clear as day, blue skies and cumulus clouds. I turned back the way I had been going hoping that my mind was just playing tricks on me and that the trail really had not ended. Nope, no such luck, it was still the end of the trail. Looking ahead the sky had a low stratus overcast layer blocking view of any large hills or mountains in the distance. Visibility was not that good, maybe five miles at most.

         I did not like the purplish tint to the sky, it did not look very good, rather ominous. I decided to check the base of the trail. All this walking and I hardly ever looked down at the trail. It seemed to be an animal trail, but with such an abrupt ending I was beginning to question that. The trail was only a couple of feet wide, with low grasses at the edges and then a gradual increase in size and height of the plant materials. There were a few smallish rocks and pebbles, nothing bigger than a thumb size, and a bit of what looked like crushed leaf material. No real dirt visible.

         I got down closer to the ground and brushed some of the small rocks and leafs away to see what lay underneath. Some hard almost brittle hard pan broken up with some sand, moss and loam mixed in. It did not feel moist at all, just very dry. I found this rather odd since the leaf matter and the grasses had some lingering moisture on them. I stood back up to get another look around.

         When I turned around the trail was gone. No trail in any direction. I could not even distinguish my own foot prints looking back. Going back was out of the question, two days following this disappeared trail left that option out, along with the fact I was not sure I could follow it back, there were several twist and turns in the trail. Left and or right were option, but I could see little in either of those directions, at least looking forward I could detect what looked like a smoke stream. It was hard to tell for sure, it was pretty distant and disappeared into the overcast pretty quickly.

         It was approaching day four for me in these odd woods. There was plenty of berries and tubers to eat and even some safe fungi, so I was doing okay food wise, water surprisingly seemed easy to find. I had found an artesian well yesterday, and it looks like a small stream up ahead, so I will camp the night there. I do not really understand how I had become so disoriented on my hike, but lost in these odd woods I was. Myth and Legends, I only hope I can survive and write about the disappearing trail, and what I find up ahead.