Unable to find the trail, but we weren't lost!

A week or so ago we went hiking on a Sunday with our friend Per.   We had planned to go for a couple of hours and go up to the reservoirs, up killer hill, and back thru the meadow.  Five hours later we were not completing the plan.  We went up to the first reservoir, up killer hill, to the top of Sundance Mt., and made a wrong turn.  We saw the back side of Woodmoor Mt. and hiked for 5 hr.  We think we went to the Rock Dome but I'm not sure.  We had to bushwhack for an hour and couldn't find the trail.  We knew which direction we needed to go so therefore Arn says we never were lost.  I disagree.  After finally finding it we had another hour to go and ended up coming down Rocky Canyon again.  It's a difficult exit and we really didn't want to do it again.  We realized where we made the wrong turn.  The next time we are going to start at the Meadow and try that way.  It was a long day but we did burn a few calories.  Per has a hiking card that gives him free emergency  rescues.  We need to get the cards too............just in case.