We study when characteristic and H\"older continuous functions are traces of Sobolev functions on doubling metric measure spaces. We provide analytic and geometric conditions sufficient for extending characteristic and H\"older continuous functions into globally defined Sobolev functions.

Let $X$ be a locally finite, connected graph without vertices of degree $1$. Non-backtracking random walk moves at each step with equal probability to one of the ``forward'' neighbours of the actual state, \emph{i.e.,} it does not go back along the preceding edge to the preceding state. This is not a Markov chain, but can be turned into a Markov chain whose state space is the set of oriented edges of $X$. Thus we obtain for infinite $X$ that the $n$-step non-backtracking transition probabilities tend to zero, and we can also compute their limit when $X$ is finite. This provides a short proof of old results concerning cogrowth of groups, and makes the extension of that result to arbitrary regular graphs rigorous. Even when $X$ is non-regular, but \emph{small cycles are dense in} $X$, we show that the graph $X$ is non-amenable if and only if the non-backtracking $n$-step transition probabilities decay exponentially fast. This is a partial generalization of the cogrowth criterion for regular graphs which comprises the original cogrowth criterion for finitely generated groups of Grigorchuk and Cohen.

In the paper we formulate a Covering Property Axiom, \psmP, which holds in the iterated perfect set model, and show that it implies the following facts, of which (a) and (b) are the generalizations of results of J. Stepr\={a}ns. \begin{compactenum}[\rm(a)~~] \item There exists a family $\F$ of less than continuum many $\C^1$ functions from $\real$ to $\real$ such that $\real^2$ is covered by functions from $\F$, in the sense that for every $\la x,y\ra\in\real^2$ there exists an $f\in\F$ such that either $f(x)=y$ or $f(y)=x$. \item For every Borel function $f\colon\real\to\real$ there exists a family $\F$ of less than continuum many ``$\C^1$'' functions ({\em i.e.,} differentiable functions with continuous derivatives, where derivative can be infinite) whose graphs cover the graph of $f$. \item For every $n>0$ and a $D^n$ function $f\colon\real\to\real$ there exists a family $\F$ of less than continuum many $\C^n$ functions whose graphs cover the graph of $f$. \end{compactenum} We also provide the examples showing that in the above properties the smoothness conditions are the best possible. Parts (b), (c), and the examples are closely related to work of A. Olevski\v{\i}.