Thanks. There have been various repair projects in that neck of the woods lately, and from what I can tell, the signs are consistently confusing.
I'm not a huge fan of Wildcat Canyon between the Brazilian Room and Grizzly Peak, too many cars that want to drive crazy. It probably doesn't help that, on the rare occasions I ride that stretch, when a car is driving too fast past me, my thoughts go back to the 1970's when I was with my sister's boyfriend driving his dad's convertible Alfa Romeo on that stretch, driving in a manner that could easily have wiped out any cyclist that happened to be riding along the road. Against his wishes, I put on a seat belt, I told him it was because I didn't trust other drivers, but I didn't add that I didn't trust that even good drivers could necessarily get out of his way. Coming from the Brazilian Room I'm usually only heading to Creston, so I almost always ride Shasta to Grizzly, one time I decided to ride Wildcat to Grizzly to avoid the steep hill, but after that ride, I decided the steep hill is better than the scary cars (the crappy pavement on parts of Grizzly if I'm going further than Creston, however, is another matter, hope that gets fixed soon).
While we're on the subject of Wildcat, I have an etiquette question. On Saturday, I rode up from Camino Pablo, and the only 4 cyclists I saw between Camino Pablo and El Toyonal happened to be at or near the washout the same time as me (a few more were coming down between El Toyonal and Inspiration Point, and several dozen were going up between Inspiration Point and the Botanical Garden). When I hit the washout, one rider was already in the narrow part, and I waited for him to exit before heading up. There were three up the road coming down, but not there yet, and I went ahead and entered the narrow part. Two of the three up ahead rode down through the narrow part while I was still going up. We passed each other okay, and they went slow and carefully enough, but it felt a little nerve wracking, there is barely room for cyclists to pass each other, and since I'm next to the abyss, it felt like I was the one more at risk. The other person coming down waited for me to get through before he entered the narrow stretch and I said "thanks" as I came past him.
In hiking etiquette, when there is only room for one to be on the trail, right of way goes to the uphill hiker. Such a situation would very, very rarely be encountered in road cycling (I can't remember any other time such a thing has happened to me), but is there any etiquette rule for road cyclists when in such a situation? Since I could see up the hill that 3 people were going to be there soon, should I have just waited for all of them to come through? Should the three up ahead all have waited for me? I have no idea. If I had to do it again, I would have let them all come down just to avoid any of them deciding to come through while I was in the narrow stretch, no matter what is "proper," but I am curious about what is "proper."