Can someone help me explain one of these two allusions?

Question

From "The Scarlet Ibis" - "I should have already admitted defeat, but my pride wouldn't let me. The excitement of our program had now been gone for weeks, but still we kept on with a tired doggedness. It was too late to turn back, for we had both wandered too far into a net of expectations and had left no crumbs behind." The allusion being "had no crumbs left behind"

OR

From Walden by Henry David Thoreau, his comments on how hard his neighbors worked - "The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor. They have no friend Iolaus to burn with a hot iron the root of the hydra's head, but as soon as one head is crushed, two spring up." With the allusion being the last sentence of the paragraph.

PLEASE HELP

Answer 1

"had no crumbs left behind"

It's like in Hansel and Gretel....the children's story where they were lost in the forest and they left crumbs so that they will be able to find their way back

It's too late to turn back for there is no way to find your way back....there are no crumbs left to follow...

They had so many expectations and looked forward to it so much that it is difficult to find where it all began