What Direction?

I was driving home today.  As I approached the last corner I saw a cyclist paused at the intersection.  As I turned, he gestured, so I stopped and rolled down the window.  He wanted to know if this was the Sligo Creek Trail.

Sligo Creek Trail, coming from the north, follows the west side of the creek until our neighborhood.  Then it crosses over to the east side and continues south alongside Sligo Creek Parkway.  At the point where, to follow the main trail, you need to turn left and cross a bridge over the creek, the pavement also continues straight ahead, taking you over another bridge to an area with a playground and a couple of paved access trails, one of which leads to our street.  Not infrequently, I encounter confused walkers or cyclists that make it to the cul-de-sac at the end of our street and suddenly realize that the trail they thought they were on has abandoned them.

I knew how to direct today's lost cyclist back to the main trail, but to tell him which direction to turn I needed to know where he had come from and where he wanted to go.  I asked if he had come from the north.  He didn't know.  He said he had got on the trail at "the shopping center" and wanted to ride to the end.

Well, I happen to know that there is a shopping center a few miles upstream (north) where people access the trail, so I asked if he was coming from upstream.  He didn't know.  I wasn't sure if he didn't know which way the water was flowing (should be rather obvious because the trail is gently but obviously downhill all that way) or whether he didn't know what upstream meant.

Then he pointed off to the southwest - toward downtown Silver Spring, the District, and ultimately Virginia - and said he wanted to go that way.  I very much doubted that, but let it go, and assumed that he was headed downstream.  So I sent him back to the park with what I hope were clear directions to go over both bridges and turn right to continue on the trail.

As this discussion was going on, I was thinking that his confusion and inability to communicate where he was coming from or wanted to go revealed a lack of a basic awareness of his surroundings.  He had gotten on the trail and intended to go to the other end.  But that turned out to not be quite enough information to keep him on track.