I always thought the etiquette was that the down hiller had right of way. Is this the case?
The person riding up the hill has the right of way ( as read by me in mountainbike magazines). That is, as it is harder to restart riding as opposed for the person coming down the hill
This is good to know. Thanks for reply.
That is a rule that IMBA, among others recommend. It is a direct poach from the rules of driving on icy roads. It has little relevance to MTB where the uphill rider has more chance of seeing, hearing or reacting to a rider approaching from above. The only way to be fair about right of way on 2 way trail is to demand everyone give way to everyone else.
Meeting someone on a trail is meant to be a cause for social interaction, not rights, wrongs and conflict. Unless a trail is totally unsafe as a 2 way trail (e.g. Cannonball Thredbo), I don't like the concept of one way trail. It immediately raises conflict and "rights" in the inevitable event of meeting someone going the other way. That then raises legal ramifications for everyone involved, including the land manager and perhaps trail care volunteers. One way trail also enhances a racing mentality. Those who choose one way trail over 2 way are just as unimpressed coming up behind a slow rider as they are meeting them in the opposite direction.
When you add all that into potentially losing half the length of trail in your local system, I would be very guarded in chasing the one way trail genie.
I believe most are using that to go up. I would recommend cutting a separate up-trail for that section that rejoins the main trail at the top near the wood stepAlso- for future reference I'm looking for some input on the rocky roll down section just below where the reroute joins the trail again. I see that the 5th line down this feature has recently appeared (far right in photo below) and is rapidly degrading. There seems to be a pattern at this site of riding a line in and then when it errodes too much putting a new line in and so on and so on. It would be nice to properly formalise the lines here. Picture below for reference - perhaps if there is some input it might be a project for the work day on the 28th March.
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Crofty, where abouts will you be doing the work?
I can get there about 10....
Kids soccer stars at 9