More People in the World Drive on the Left Than on the Right

Did you miss me?  I didn't think so.  My posts were getting preachy so I stopped for a while.  They are supposed to be funny and possibly thought provoking but it seems to me they were just provoking.  I'll try again.

We had the pleasure this weekend of hosting my brother in law, Jeff, and his long lost but now reconnected friend from college, Eric.  I don't know how, but after 25 years of not seeing each other, it's as if they were never apart.  It takes a lot of work to maintain long distance friendships and I admire them for trying.  We all had a fun filled weekend of hiking, eating, drinking (Jeff had a beer), and swimming in the freezing creeks we encountered (well, me at least) along the way.  But of course none of this is funny.  Getting Jeff to drink a beer (full can, by himself), and a cup of full on caffeinated coffee, at night, is not haha funny but it is odd funny in a  self-satisfying sort of way.  The beer drinking incident was really just icing on the cake for me.  The real treat was seeing Jeff dressed in my own official hiking uniform;  Nylon hiking pants, polyester sweat wicking shirt, full sun hat, ankle supporting hiking boots, and name brand day pack .  Not a stitch of cotton or plaid.  I was tempted to ask him to drop his pants so I could check the underwear for unauthorized cotton whiteys but I didn't want to risk being disappointed.  I was so happy with his outfit that I didn't even let the extraneous fanny pack annoy me.  And hey, it contained one of those possibly life saving emergency blankets, along with assorted antibiotics, anesthetic agents, and a fully equipped collapsible ER, so who can argue with preparedness, especially if someone else is hauling the gear.

I should also mention that in preparation for our Saturday hike we dropped off a car in the parking area at the end of the trail.  This we did at eleven o'clock at night and the drop off was a good forty-five minute drive from the cabin.  This was a very smart move, made even smarter by the fact that the driver, Eric, did not forget to bring the keys on the hike.  Which of course brings me to the actual subject of this post;  Who has the right of way on a narrow trail, the uphill or the downhill hikers?

It has always been my position that the uphill hikers should stop and yield to the downhill hikers due to the fact that momentum and speed make it more difficult, and maddening, for the downhillers to put on the brakes and stop. The uphill walkers have zero momentum and it takes no energy to stop.  Many people might argue that it is more difficult to start moving again on the uphill but if one is performing the proper rest step mountaineering cadence, that really is an insignificant factor anyway.  I am not saying one totally stops during the rest step technique but if you are familiar with uphill slogging you will get my drift.  Well it just so happened that during our hike, Tammy stopped and yielded for two hikers coming down Cornell Mountain.  She casually told them to proceed as downhill hikers have the right of way anyway.  "No they don't", replied one of the backpackers, "uphill hikers have the right of way, but thanks".

To say I was flabbergasted might be a bit of an exaggeration but for my entire adult hiking life (I was more tolerant as a teen hiker) I have been regularly irked  (not an exaggeration) by the many thoughtless uphill hikers who did not yield to me as I careened downhill. So as an opening to get some closure, I asked this apparently experienced backpacker where he was from.  Colorado.  "And is this the convention in Colorado?", I asked, struggling to keep my discontentment under wraps.

"Of course.  It is much easier to get going again once you have stopped if you are going downhill" he cheerfully informed us.  And so, rather than engage in a footpath face-off, I merely smirked the way one does at the woefully misinformed and bid them a good day.  And, of course to make matters worse, my chosen companion in life and hiking used this opportunity to gleefully berate me for the next two miles as we struggled to summit Slide Mountain. "If it turns out you were wrong all these years you won't change your mind will you?" she laid into me, as if I have never engaged in contrition my entire life.  "It is not simply a matter of preference like driving on the right or left",  I countered.  "It is a matter best decided by the Newtonian Law of conservation of momentum".

So when we got back to the cabin I finally "googled" the controversy.  It seems, my fellow trekkers, that it may actually be an East vs West debate.  Most of the western (i.e. Rocky Mountains) located opinions were for the downhill hiker to yield, due to the idea that once a cadence is attained in walking uphill it is harder to restart the rhythm.  This is in direct opposition to my previously stated theory about the rest step so I must now place the controversy into the court of public opinion.  I am once again asking for my faithful readers feedback on the matter.  Only experienced hikers should respond.  And since my readership consists of basically fewer than any meaningful N value, minus those who don't hike, I am basically left with only my opinion.  Which is all I really care about anyway.