Good point actually, that makes a lot of sense.

Oh, that's a good notion. My thought had been that it's a place where people often stop so it formed a bypass of sorts.

Found the hiker.

Hmmm maybe, but the left is on a slope. The real path is lower, why wouldn't the rain pool there?

Here's a baseless guess: someone dumped something big on the trail there for awhile and a path formed from the detour and never went away