Bear Cut Nature Preserve

I'm lost.

I stop moving so I can consider the situation. My breathing is heavy. Sweat keeps dripping from my brow through my eyebrows and threatening to sting my vision before I whisk it away with the flat of my palm. I want to keep running, keep moving, the clock is ticking.  But I'm stopped, dead in my tracks.  I'm staring at a chain link fence - ten feet tall - topped with barbed wire.

Blast!

I thought I was getting close. I could hear the dull rush of car traffic, then I saw a solitary street light through the trees. The road was right ahead of me. No more than 50 feet away. But then the fence emerged from the thick tropical vegetation and I knew I was trapped.

Why the barbed wire? To keep me in? Or others out? I'm not supposed to be here.

I consider my options. Keep going? Look for a week spot in the fence, somewhere perhaps where I can duck under? No - the fence looks too new. Perhaps I get to the fence and follow it to the end? No - the vegetation is too thick here, interspersed with mud and water - could take an hour to navigate.

So, go back? Retrace my steps? This is the option I didn't want. But I concede. It is the only option. 

I knew this was a possibility when I started down the trail. I was exploring, and I love exploring, but sometimes when you are exploring you have to be open to the possibility that a particular path won't always take you exactly where you want go.

I've ended up in a place called the Bear Cut Nature Preserve on the north end of Crandon Park, Key Biscayne. I never knew this place existed. The path along the beach had ended and rather than heading back to the road immediately I figured I would just keep heading north as long as I could and find the road later on.

There was no path for while. Just white sand and palm trees. Then a path emerged, cut from the swath of sea grapes and saw grass. I was running down this path for a while before a sign told me it's name, the Bear Cut Nature Trail. The course of this morning's run had taken me over a high span bridge across the inky black intracoastal waters in the pre-dawn darkness, past a marina, along the tranquility of the bay at Hobie Island Beach, past a seaquarium, over another bridge, past another marina, then along the tree lined road that stretches past an unseen golf course and tennis center, then through the village of Key Biscayne to my turn around point. After running along the beach at Crandon Park I saw the Bear Cut Nature trail as one more experience along the way that I couldn't pass up even though it may mean having to back track.

After running half a mile along the trail it intersected with a paved path. At this point I had a few options - continue north along the same trail, go south-west on the paved path (back towards the last parking lot I had seen where the trail began), or go directly west on another paved path. I chose the path heading west hoping it would lead me to the road. But after 100 feet or so the pavement abruptly ended. Undeterred by the ending of the pavement I could see that many before me had just continued on into the brush. The trail was faint but it was still heading in the direction I wanted to go. So I kept running, slowing my pace to work my way through the thick undergrowth. The single path narrowed into obscurity and more possible paths opened up and then closed and then there was no path at all. I stopped running and continued walking, not sure where my next step would land. The tall grass hid the uneven ground and at one point I came close to stepping right into a small pond. This is when I heard the cars and saw the street light.

A few seconds later is when I realized that I was trapped. 

I turn around at this point feeling a bit defeated by the fence and start back in the direction that I had come. The grass here is up to my hips and I'm a little worried about setting my foot down on some wild animal or walking through a spiders web and getting a long legged little monster right in the face. After stomping through the thick growth for a while I realize it is getting higher and thicker. There are not even minimal trails here. I can't find any of the paths that I had arrived here on.

Trapped. And lost.

I realize that my Nike+ GPS is still running. This should help me, hopefully. I pull up the map on my phone and see the broad red line of my path meandering through the middle of nowhere until it stops and begins heading in another direction. I can see that my "about face" back there wasn't a true 180 degrees. I turned around but I am heading nowhere near the short paved path that I was looking for. I try my best to correct my trajectory and then head towards a clump of trees hoping for dry ground with less underbrush. I reach the trees and sure enough I am on dry ground and the saw grass and winding vines are more manageable, but now I am tangled in the low branches of the trees and can't continue in that same direction. I adjust my approach again to avoid the trees and struggle again through the mess of plant life until I see a welcome strip of black asphalt.

Back on track. I'll have to run another half mile to get back to the road but I'm no longer feeling trapped or lost. I went 1 mile out of my way through the nature preserve but I wouldn't have changed it for the world. I check my Nike+ app - 11 miles down. 5 to go.