It is becoming increasingly clear that many of our neighbors believe the Hyalite Canyon trailhead is a community center, a lounge, and a staging area for a complex game of social chess. On Tuesday, I witnessed a gentleman standing in the middle of the only exit lane, engaged in a twenty-minute deep dive on the current state of local fly fishing with a friend parked in an idling SUV.

When I politely gestured for him to move so I could reach the pavement, he seemed genuinely shocked that my desire to leave the mountains superseded his desire to analyze stream flows. We are here to hike, not to create a stationary social club in the middle of a narrow gravel thoroughfare. If you absolutely must discuss the nuances of the Gallatin River, please pull into a designated space. It is a parking lot, not a living room.