If they don't do walkups in some way (RIP my past summers where I didn't have to **** calendar my backpacking trips), I wonder if pass-thrus could have some wiggle to them as they're in non-impacted areas. Like a Kearsarge permit has to be used for that day, but a pass-thru that goes past Kearsarge Lakes the first night can be used a day (or two?) before or after to adjust for weather. That seems a bit unlikely, but would also semi-solve the issue of freeing up poor rangers from the desks of wilderness centers while giving people some flexibility to respond to weather, life, etc.
Additional thoughts:
I just book a one night trip exiting the same TH with a random camp, then go back later and edit it for the proper dates and zones (as michaelzim mentioned as a tip earlier). http://highsierratopix.com/community/vi ... ap#p163883 is a help for SEKI as some spots are unintuitive for me. If I'm staying in Wright Canyon I'm not going to type in Tyndall creek etc.
In regards to increased cost - the Sierra Nevada is still cheaper than pretty much any other place that has permits. The Olympics, Grand Canyon, Glacier, Paria/Buckskin (and other hot SW BLM spots) charge ~$6-8 for a trip then $5-6 a person per day. A five day trip into Paria Canyon for two was $59. A ranger at the Grand Canyon was wondering how the Sierra funded itself with the free walk ups (we paid around the same amount of money for a one night walk up permit there as a trip of any length would be in the Sierra).
re: off the clock rangers, I only talk to fun rangers and not gun rangers. I've met one cool gun ranger ~Vogelsang peak, and one at Lee's Ferry that came up to the van as we were cooking dinner and wanted to make sure we weren't going to spend the night there (nice BLM pullouts ~5mi away, so we weren't), but I got interrogated by one for five minutes for sharing beta at Glen Aulin once so tend to not engage.
