Trail Etiquette #1

Denny Creek 7/10/07 4 miles

One problem with living so close to an urban area such as Seattle, where the citizens love to be in the outdoors is you run across what Michael & I term as casual hikers. Casual hikers are the folks who wake up on a Saturday, see that the sun is shining bright and decide that a hike might be just what they should do for the day. So with no planning whatsoever, they strike out for that trail a friend told them about for a nice little walk in the woods. It's not that casual hikers a bad, but they can become their own worst enemy when in trouble. Luckily most casual hikers survive their day in the woods and relate their enjoyment to co-workers on Monday.

But casual hikers are also going to be most likely to ignore or be ignorant of hiking ethics - the greatest of which are the Leave No Trace principles. I can go into those in greater detail at a later point. A common courtesy though, which I met up with on this mid-week hike up the Denny Creek drainage, is a question of right of way.

I was told several years ago that hikers, climbers, and other adventurers who are heading uphill have the right of way. Meaning, that if you are heading downhill and another hiker is heading uphill,, then you step aside, stop, and allow the uphill adventurer pass with a wave and a smile. This does not mean you plow right past them thinking they will step off for you. The main reason for this? It takes a lot more effort to regain your pace as you head uphill, where downhill momentum isn't as hard.

So please, next time you are on the trail and someone approaches you as they're heading uphill, do the courteous thing and step off the trail to wave them on. In the meantime, the image above was taken overlooking Keekwuhlee Falls.