Inside the world's largest corn maze

The world's largest corn maze is open to the public in Dixon, Calif., through at least November 5. It is estimated to take an hour to work your way though it. If you don't get lost, that is.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

DIXON, Calif.--I'm sitting on a stairway in the middle of the world's-largest corn maze and blogging the experience. Literally.

I like to say I'm the first to do things, and of course, you never really know if it's true. But I have to say I think the odds that someone else has been blogging inside this maze, which comprises 40 acres of healthy cornfield in this small farming town near Sacramento, are pretty small. But you never know.

I'm doing it thanks to the Verizon EV-DO card I've been using, and the ability to log on, get e-mail, upload pictures, and blog from inside a huge cornfield is kind of strange. Probably not what the maze was intended for. But, hey, the signal is fantastic. What could I do but get online and blog?

At some points, the pathways seem like they never end. But it's important, if you're following the provided map, that you can tell the difference between the official paths and ones visitors have cut themselves.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)

So here I am. I entered the maze awhile ago intent on finding my way through without getting lost, even though I knew that my chances of that were pretty slim. After all, while you get a very detailed map when you start, people have cut a lot of illegitimate paths through the maze. And so just when you think you know where you are, the map tells you something different from what you see.

This maze is very, very cool. From inside it, you can't see out at all. The stalks are 8 to 12 feet high, and so there's no visibility to the exits. Matt Cooley, who along with his brother Mark, created this maze, say that often, lost people just push their way out, ending up nowhere near where they're supposed to be. But that's better than being forever trapped in the middle of 40 acres of corn.

I am determined not to get irrevocably lost, however, and so I am marking my map religiously as I go. I've only been sure I was screwing up at least four times in the first quarter of the maze. I think that means I'm doing well.

I'm going to stop writing now and get back to the maze. I'll file a longer story and a full gallery later. Stay tuned. And if you don't hear from me, can you call someone? I may still be in the middle, trying desperately to find my way out.

[AndrewRich]

Always turn right

Turn right whenever possible. If that leads you to a dead end, back out and turn right again.

[JustinSpinks]

If you have a million years

In a 40 acre maze it would be quicker to wait for Google Earth 4000.2 with Realtime satellite imagery to help guide you through the maze than to just keep turning right!