First published through The Paris News on Feb. 24, 2017. The article can be found on their website at http://theparisnews.com/opinion/article_373d560c-faaf-11e6-9928-ef5ccac804da.html and was backdated.

To run into a road block isn’t a good way to start the day.

This past Tuesday, I went hiking with a friend at the Caddo Grasslands. It was enjoyable, but it took some time before we could actually begin the hike.

We began the trip at about 10:30 a.m., and since the Grasslands are only about an hours’ drive away, we decided to try to get there by 11:30 a.m. We did, but when we came to the turn off for the National Park there was a literal road block. We then drove all the way around the park to see if there was another way to enter the park.

There was, but it, too, said “closed, open to local traffic only.” We thought we drove an hour­­ a little bit more because we had to go a different route­ for nothing.

I found the park’s number and called them to ask why it was closed. The website for the park didn’t say it was closed for the day, and the lady on the phone said it shouldn’t be. She called the workers to see why there was a closed sign, then called us back to let us know it was still open to the public.

We didn’t drive for nothing. After we were told we were allowed to go in, we found the day park area, parked the car and began the hike.

The trails at the Grasslands were amazing. The trails were long, muddy and we were the only two on them.

The trail we took has been utilized by horses, so it was incredibly bumpy, even for hiking shoes­, not to mention I was wearing converses instead of boots.

We combined two trails, hoping to double back to where we parked the car. The yellow trail we took was said to be about five miles long, and the red trail was about two and a half miles long.

After walking through the yellow trail for about two and a half hours, we began to see more mud because the trees were more dense then when we started. With only about half a mile left of the yellow trail, I stepped over a log in the middle of the path. When my right foot connected with the soft, muddy, wet and slippery ground, it decided to continue moving, sliding. Next thing I knew, my bag was right in front of me, my camera, in the mud and I’m completely soaked. I slipped in the mud. Luckily, I wasn’t hurt, because if I had been, it would’ve been very difficult to get back to the car then.

After we finished the yellow trail, we began walking on the red trail. Somewhere along the way we lost visual of the trail. We were lost.

It wasn’t too bad because we had our phones with a GPS, but we had to jump over a fence just to get to the road to walk to the car.

After about three and a half hours later, we made it to the car and were on our way home. I can’t wait to go back in the spring.