How to best not prepare for a trail run

After missing the club run on Saturday due to being sick, Sunday I was feeling quite a bit better and decided to head out for a run. I like to pack light so I stuffed some dog poo pickup bags into the pockets on my hand helds and my drivers license and car keys into my pants pocket. I decided I didn't have the space in my pocket for my usual array of safety gear when heading up into the mountains; a lighter. At least that way I can start a fire if I get stranded for some reason. I pulled my compass, which was hanging off the door handle, out of the way of the door as I closed it. I thought about grabbing at least my mini headlamp which weighs probably about 50g. Then I thought nah its early and I'm just going for a quick run. Although I had already told Olivia I may 'keep going if it felt good'. Me and my dog Shazam set off to Mountain Highway. We parked a couple of blocks from the end of pavement and ran up past the quarry and past Grouse Mountain ski resort. There was snow but it wasn't deep, except for where they make the artificial stuff. Still feeling like we were only getting started I had the brilliant idea to head over to the Hanes Valley. The trail up top of Grouse was beautiful, there was snow but it was packed from lots of traffic. It got a little steep and rocky coming down the backside, and the snow made it hard going but still nothing serious. When we got to the turnoff for the Hanes Valley, all the footprints went towards Crown Mountain. Oh well, I thought, once we get through the boulder field it should be smooth sailing, as there wouldn't be much snow below it. The boulder field was slow going, there was just the right amount of snow to completely cover many hazards, but yet not enough to keep you from falling into them. We saw 3 hikers headed in the opposite direction and I asked about Lynn Creek. A woman in the group looked up, not looking very impressed, and said "oh its not bad at all." She looked like she was really enjoying the boulder field. We followed their footprints for a while until it became obvious that they did not follow the line of the orange marking posts. We followed the line of posts, then it seemed to disappear. Then we got caught down at the bottom by boulder cliffs and fields of thornbushes. I knew the trail was off to the side above us by this point, but it was a lot closer to plow straight into the woods by now, and the climb back up was not looking any friendlier than any of our other options. We walked through the fields of thornbushes, actually more walking on top of them to keep from falling into whatever was underneath them. It was as pleasant as it sounds. Once through the thornbushes we found the path quickly. I was relieved as I knew the worst was behind us (make that I thought the worst was behind us). We finally got to run again after a couple hours of scrambling. The problem was I am not that familiar with this part of the trail and darkness is fast approaching. Guess I could've used that headlamp I thought. And possibly Olivia's cell phone so I could call her and let her know I would be late. Then we came to a creek crossing where there was a marker at a point on the side of the creek we were coming from, and on the other side - nothing. There was a trail but it went about 10 feet before coming to a dead end. We looked around for a while and then found a small trail leading down along the dried creek bed. It wasn't nearly as well travelled but I figured that maybe people were using the rocks at that point. Then it disappeared. So did the sunlight. Oh no, we were in the middle of nowhere with basically nothing. We set off along the creek bed and it took us down to Lynn Creek. Well at least I was hoping that it was Lynn Creek. Looking around it was apparent that there were no lights visible in any direction. We followed Lynn Creek for a while but when it narrowed we were often forced to walk in the water and at times it was getting quite deep. At least I had brought Shazam's leash so I tied him on just in case he got pulled away by the current. But after prolonged periods of walking in the water my legs were really stiffening up due to the cold. So we set off into the bush to do some bushwacking again. I have run in the dark in trails before without a headlamp and thought it was hard. Hell I've run on some trails with a headlamp and thought it was hard. But this was something else. Trying to climb over 2 metre wide trees lying on their sides, and then fall on the other side without getting hurt, never knowing for sure how far away the next 100 metre plunge into a gulley is away. Watching the shape of everything around you, down to the angles the trees are standing at to try to get clues of what lies ahead. After a couple hours of that, I was feeling quite confident in my abilities to navigate through that dark chaos but it was really slow going. We headed back out to Lynn Creek again, luckily by now it had widened and flattened out, leaving lots of rocky areas to walk on. We began to make good progress and the extra light from not having trees block out what little light there was made it seem like it was daylight almost. The river narrowed down after some time and we were forced back up into the bush. This time we found a little used and overgrown trail of some kind, possibly an animal trail. By comparison to crawling through the thick bush or walking thigh deep in rushing mountain water at the end of November it seemed like Fisherman's or something though. Not long after we came to a rock clearing. I was pretty sure I knew where we were and then saw a sign 'Canada Mill' and I knew we were at the intersection of the Cedar's Mill and Lynn Loop Trails. We were only 4 km from the caretakers house at Headwaters Park. The trail was so wide and easy to follow we were now running again. Those seemed like the shortest 4 km I've ever run after all of that. I knocked at the house and asked to use the phone. Olivia wa obviously worried so I was glad to let her know I was OK. She said that the RCMP had called because they found our car in North Vancouver. They were just arranging with North Shore Search and Rescue to start a search. I told her to make sure they knew I was OK and that I would rush back to the car and get home as quick as possible. Luckily this had all taken place in the past few minutes so nothing was underway yet. I thanked the caretaker and took off onto the last 1km stretch on the Baden-Powell back to the car, not wanting to go all the way around on the roads. Even in the dark it was effortless following the trail and we quickly got back to Mountain Highway. We ran down the road and when we arrived at the car the RCMP was waiting there. Apparently North Shore Search and Rescue was not amused that I had taken off back into the trails without a headlamp and was organising a search party to go in there to look for me. I told the officer I was fine and she called Olivia to re-confirm I was OK and back at the car. Apparently there had been a flurry of phone calls in the few minutes it took me to get across. I got home around 9:30, battered, bruised and bloody but glad to be home. What did I learn from this experience? Nothing. I would do it all again next weekend. Although I will pack the lighter, cell phone, headlamp and compass.