Fall Hikers In Wyoming Need To Know Basic Trail Etiquette For Everyone’s Sake
Fall hiking season is coming, and if you say all summer that the heat keeps you in the house and off the trails, now is your time to shine. Fall hiking adds another layer of beauty with cooler weather and changing leaves. You're also unlikely to run into a large crowd of tourists on the trail, as the travel season is starting to slow down.
Since this is Wyoming and people enjoy getting out, you may see a few others enjoying the fall conditions, so you should know the best practices for trail etiquette. Yeah, who knew there was such a long list of rules when it comes to hiking?
What if you're going downhill and are approaching a hiker coming uphill? If you're winded, what's the best way to rest? You stop for a quick picnic lunch; where do you dispose of your waste?
Those are great questions, and the American Hiking Society's unwritten hiking etiquette practice covers them. Organizations like the AHS, along with the National Park Service and other hiking clubs and groups, actively promote these guidelines to enhance the hiking experience for everyone.
Think about being a first-time hiker, and another hiker ruins the experience by not picking up their trash, letting their dogs' poo remain on the trail, and you slip on the turd, or the oncoming hiker doesn't heed the right-of-way to you and forces you off the trail.
There isn't really a formal hiking police force patrolling the trails and giving you a citation if you don't follow the etiquette recommendations, so you have to self-police.