Twice now I've irritated the locals by blundering into an area that they would just as soon have to themselves. In the moment of the first situation, I didn't even realize I was on private property.
"Nice place." The guy who was friendly just up the road gives a sort of befuddled what the hell / shaking his head "yeah." It wasn't until I walked on the road another 100 yards, turned around and went back the trail that I realized where I had gone wrong.
The trail parallels a private road and at one point crosses onto it. In one moment, there was the guy in his old truck, his dog in the truck bed, a woman hiking on the road, and her dog. As the truck passed relatively slowly, the woman's dog started chasing the truck. "She's going to end up getting hit."
"Nah, she'll get tired and turn around." As I walked towards the direction the truck was headed, I clapped my hands loudly and her dog came running back. Problem solved. New problem begins. With my attention following the truck and dogs, I was completely oblivious to the sign pointing to where the trail split off from the road, and another one saying "Private Road". My view of the trail sign was likely blocked initially by the truck, and my focus on the truck and dog caused me to miss the other sign. On my return, I noticed a barrage of signs everywhere saying private road or private property - the overall problem being that the trail and road merged and threaded through the property, then split off. There were quite a few signs; only a small one at the critical junction that I missed.
On the second occasion, I headed on my scooter to the end of a road and a trail head. Having never been there, the end came up a bit abruptly around a curve, with a locked gate across the road. It was clear there was no automobile parking, but I also didn't notice any parking signs. There was a local with his dog. "Hi - it's my first time here and I was wondering about parking."
"No parking here." There was a space plenty large enough for the scooter along the side.
"Would it be okay if I parked there?"
"I don't think so. No parking here." He gave me that irritated, are you an idiot? look. As soon as I turned around and headed back the road, I realized what the idiot look was about. Since I didn't realize I was near the end of the road, I had completely ignored the line of about 10 cars parked beside the road. I also later noticed, half buried in the bushes, a sign that said "No Parking here to end of road." Oh. The cars were tightly packed, so I parked at the far end. Walking back, I saw the guy head up the hill with his dog - clearly a local, and likely irritated not only by the cars lining the road but also oblivious interlopers. And where I had originally encountered the guy - what would have been directly behind me, but ten feet in the air (?!) the No Parking sign.
