I always doubted my sibling’s sense of direction when it came to hiking, but on one trip it became apparent they couldn’t read a map either. It was a hot August day and we were running low on water when we came upon a trail junction. We were heading to one particular mountain when my sibling decided to study the map. According to their interpretation of it, if we headed in another direction there would be a stream about 10 minutes away where we could get more water. So we decided that since it was a short walk we’d leave all our gear at the junction and just carry our water bottles. It turned out the 10 minute walk was actually about 90 minutes downhill, which made it even longer going back up to the junction. This being the case, we drank most of the water on the way back and were in the same position we were in when we had left for the 10 minute walk. I never trusted my siblings map reading skills after that. (This is the same sibling that left the lug nuts off) Also as a FYI; if you think downing a large quantity of cashews after eating nothing for hours, plus walking in the heat is a good idea, no it isn’t, they don’t taste as good coming back up.

This is what we found when we arrived at the stream, August 1980