... between two points is a straight line.
I was reminded of this simple fact on Friday afternoon after another of my geocaching adventures.
I was in the mountains, and there were two geocaches that I was seeking. I had a couple of options for trails that led to them, and the closer of the two was less than three-quarters of a mile away from where I parked. The second was about the same distance away from the first cache.
The first cache was a pretty easy find after a decent climb over a small ridge and more than a mile of hiking. The second was an even harder hike to the west over an even higher ridge and down into a narrow canyon with a creek running through it. Because the little valley was so narrow, I didn't have good reception on my GPS, so I never did find the second cache. And after all my exertion, there I was half a mile from a road that I could have taken.
In the end, I hiked somewhere between 4 and 6 miles, ascending 1800 feet and descending the same amount on the round trip. So to reach something 1.6 miles from me I had to go more than twice the distance. Thus I'm reminded that the straightest distance between two points is a straight line. The GPS sees the straight line, while I have to handle the terrain.
Now that I'm a little wiser, I will eventually come back from the west for the second cache, because I can't let it get the better of me.
Posted by JRC at April 10, 2005 08:31 PM | TrackBack