Originally Posted by
cityfeet
I'm just about to get into mountain biking and my daughter is interested too so this is good to think about. I didn't even know there were one way and two way trails. Will one way trails start and end at the same place usually or will I need a ride back to the starting point?
In my area the trails are maintained by SAMBA. SAMBA is (as I understand it) a local chapter of IMBA. Google IMBA when you get a chance.
SAMBA marks trails with a post that shows the difficulty (which in my limited experience is a bit of an imprecise science) and if a trail is intended to be one-way then it'll say "exit" on one of the posts. But it is still possible to get onto trails without seeing the marker, as happened to me. I guess if that happens you just do your best.
In my area, all of the single track trails that I have found so far enter and exit from a paved walkway or a gravel trail. Many are marked but I've seen plenty of unmarked. I took a mixed purpose trail (double track?) for 2 miles before realizing it didn't connect to anything. We had to ride all the way back to the start. Oops.
When you're done reading about IMBA you should check out singletracks.com or MTB project. I know there a few others as well. I use Strava as well - to give me a map and reduce some of the anxiety about getting lost.
I don't know much but I do know what it's like to be in your shoes since I'm basically still there.