High Sierra Topix

Has anyone successfully persuaded a Lodgepole employee to store away your personal effects or resupply box while you're off hiking for a week?

- Elizabeth

While they are very nice, they aren't exactly accomidating there @ lodgepole...or any national park permit office for that matter as they are on the front lines for stupid questions/requests.

But hey, as with anything it is worth a shot. It just takes that one ranger in a good mood to hook you up. Try to find one on break, and have a 20$ bill in hand

I think SEKI is too close to Fresno to get decent Rangers. Most seem to treat the job as just a job, not a career. Few have hiked anything tougher than Tokopah Falls. Far too many are college kids who, while they make great eye candy ( ) and are very nice, don't know a durn thing about anything.

Maybe the OP can resupply via the Lodgepole Market if they can't store a box for you.

There is a post office at Lodgepole, you may be able send your resupply to them, but confirm how long they will hold any boxes beforehand Lisa. Phone: 308-483-5576

I've had good experience with the DNC staff at the Curry Village desk, same problem of storing stuff, inquiring as a backpacker, not as a lodger. So that may carry over to SeKi. Might try calling Wuksachi Lodge during slack hours for advice.

franklin411 wrote:I think SEKI is too close to Fresno to get decent Rangers. Most seem to treat the job as just a job, not a career. Few have hiked anything tougher than Tokopah Falls.

I've been there once, last June, and the ranger who issued my permit was experienced and had recently been to Kaweah Gap.

Well It's a mixed bag there. Yes they do have a post office and I have sent packages months in advance without a problem but last year the post office was closed to any window service. I just happened to get there when the guy was in the back loading mail and he gave me one of my packages. He did not know if it would be open normally this year and I have been meaning to call Three Rivers which is what he told me to do in order to check on it. Hopefully it is. If not it might throw a wrench in my resupply plans this year.

While I had him there logistically I was going to come out days before I could get my next package so I went to ask the Rangers if I could store a package somewhere and at first the person at the visitor center went back and asked someone and said it should be ok but I had to come back and ask the wilderness Ranger issuing permits which was on break. When she came back basically it boiled down to the same old line you will hear a million times living in America that they cannot accept the liability of doing so and no they cannot hold it.

Personally I think it came down to that Lodgepole had a whole new staff of Rangers last year. The girl I talked to was from another state and had never worked the Sierra before. I know if I had got the same Rangers I knew from the year before they would have done it. I was also told once in Cedar Grove that if the manager at the store would not store my packages for me the Rangers had some storage and they could do it. (told by Rangers this)

Hell even when I was trying to get the permit for my next section since I was forced to get one at every single resupply last year she said at first I can't issue one for more than 14 days and had to make a call to confirm that she could. You would think she would know a basic law like she can issue a permit "legally" within the park for 30 days. If your traveling out of it then there really isn't a limit.

If the post office is open label your package like this:

[NAME]
c/o General Delivery, Lodgepole Sequoia National
Park, CA 93262

Write all over it your name and your pickup date.

I should have mentioned that I'll be staying in Lodgepole campground between two trips.

Aren't there bear boxes there? Or at the trailheads(s) in and around Lodgepole? If so, I could at least leave my food in the bear box, right? It'd be there just one week, awaiting my second trip.

Would also consider leaving food in any bear boxes that might be at the Wolverton or the Crescent Meadow trailhead, as I'll be walking in and out of those trailheads.

- Elizabeth

Is there still a post office in Grant Grove (559-335-2499) with better access?

oleander wrote:I could at least leave my food in the bear box, right?

Against regs. Also against regs, you could rent a bear can or two and cache them in the woods near the Wolverton TH.

While I'm at it, I may as well ask if anyone's gotten Verizon reception in the Lodgepole, Wolverton or Crescent Meadow areas.

I remember that Grant Grove had really good Verizon reception.

- Elizabeth

oleander wrote:While I'm at it, I may as well ask if anyone's gotten Verizon reception in the Lodgepole, Wolverton or Crescent Meadow areas.

I remember that Grant Grove had really good Verizon reception.

- Elizabeth

I was just there + using Verizon. You'll get 4G at Grant Grove, but Lodgepole is YMMV. I got a signal there last year and it was pretty good (1 bar but 4G), only at the visitor's center. I upgraded my phone a few months later and went back this year...no signal anywhere at Lodgepole. So it could have been the new phone, or it could have been the signal I had before was no longer available. YMMV.

Nothing at Wolverton or Crescent Meadow. Too many trees, no reasonable line of sight to Fresno.

My friend has ATT and she got no signal anywhere in the park. In fact, we were driving through Three Rivers before she got a signal again.