Lost

On Friday, Effie, Autumn and Erich headed out for a (normally) half hour walk to Kelly's house. They were to meet Kelly on the Goose trail and then be guided along the various trails to her house.

Two hours later Kelly called to say that they never showed up and that she had left trail markers for them ("Effie" and arrows written in the dirt). Kelly had also told a woman walking on the Goose to inform them of the trail markers.

About three hours into their journey Gillian found the disoriented, though jolly, trio outside a house on a street one over from Kelly's after they had negotiated many different (wrong) trails through the woods.

They noted that they indeed had been informed by the walker that a message was left for them and had seen Kelly's trail marker but were not sure what to do with the information.

I wonder why? This is what they thought was the message for them, posted on a tree, rather than the slightly more obvious arrows written on the ground:

Effie insists they were never truly lost and even if they were, Autumn and her had plans to eat Erich if they grew hungry.