We went for a hike up Toad Mountain this past weekend. It's a relatively easy hike–about 2.5 to 3 hr turnaround at a good clip. Just west of Nelson, it's also reasonably close to town. This was our second trip up, and, prior to leaving, I checked into Google to confirm the directions. I also have a guide book that we used last time: Where locals hike in the West Kootenay. Loaded up with two info sources (one from Google/theoutbound.com and the guide book) off we went.

The drive–first up Giveout Creek Road then Gold Creek Road–seemed longer than usual and we eventually noticed we were losing elevation. The two sets of directions were conflicting so we went with what looked like the easiest. Google had told us to "stay on the main road at all intersections." We followed these directions and overshot our mark. We didn't follow the suggestion, which appeared later in the post, to get a backroads map for the journey. Funny thing is, we saw four other groups on the hike and they all went past the right turn because they were following the easiest directions.

Lessons learned: 1) get a backroads map, 2) don't trust everything you read 3) understand that forest service roads are always changing depending on what is being logged 4) accept that as humans, we are always looking for the easiest path, even if it's not the best one.

This mistake was in no way epic– we wasted about 20 mins. What was interesting is that everyone had made the same mistake because they had all got their info from Google and assumed it was 100% correct.

Here's another Toad post FYI, and one more. 

~Andrew~

Be sure to turn right here, 7 k from the turnoff onto Giveout. Even if it seems that the main road is trending left. 

 More general pics. Nelson, then Whitewater, off in the distance. + a weird flower: