High Sierra Topix

As a little aside, many readers may wonder. How often have you been quota'd out of your first choice? It has happened, but not too many times, considering how many trips I've taken.

Only once that I can think of, and that was last year, when I wanted to reserve a permit for Bear Diversion Dam--no dice. But I got one of the first-come permits, so I get that doesn't count.

Of course, I've never even tried any of the Yosemite trailheads. I've gone out of Road's End, but always north (Monarch Divide) instead of east (Bubb's Creek) or northeast (Paradise Valley). In other words, I plan around the likelihood of quota problems so as to avoid the issue altogether.

I just copied the following off the Sierra NF site and massaged the data slightly extracting it from html. As I related some of the available walk up quotas like BDD are pitifully low. Note tis a bit hard to read as the forum editor removes all spacing and tabs:

Trailhead Number Trailhead Name Daily Advanced Reservation Daily First come, First Served

Kaiser Wilderness

K1 Sample 22 14
K2 Potter Pass 22 14
K3 Potter Cutoff 8 4
K4 Deer Creek 8 4
K5 Billy Creek 18 12
K6 Coarsegrass 8 4
K7 Hidden 8 4
K8 Pryor 8 4

John Muir Wilderness

J51 Statum/Spanish 5 3
J52 Crown/Rancheria 6 4
J53 Woodchuck 12 8
J54 Courtright 15 10
J55 Corbet 5 3
J56 Dutch 5 3
J57 Florence 21 14
J58 Hooper 5 3
J59 Bear Div. 6 4
J60 Bear Ridge 6 4
J61 Mono Creek 18 12
J62 Devils Graveyard 12 8
J63 Margaret Lakes 5 3

Dinkey Wilderness

D1 Badger 6 4
D2 Helms Mdw 6 4
D3 Cliff 12 8
D4 Nelson 6 4
D5 Willow Mdw 18 12
D6 Coyote 6 4

Ansel Adams
A30 Onion Sprgs 6 4
A31 Mono Mdw 6 4
A32 Doris/Tule 6 4
A33 Mono Hot Sp 6 4
A34 Portal Forebay 6 4
A35 Rattlesnake 6 4
A36 Crater 6 4
A61* Frenandez Pass/Norris Crk 13 8
A58 Isberg 13 9
A63* Norris Lake/ Jackass Lake 8 2
A60 Walton 8 1
A65* Chiquito Pass/ Quartz Mtn 21 14
A56 Mammoth 15 10
A54 Cassidy Crossing 8 2
A55 Miller Crossing 8 2
A51 Hells Half Acre 8 2
A52 South Fork 8 2
A52 Piyau Dome 8 2
A50 Logan Meadow 8 2

Just came back from a trip to the Emigrant wilderness and was pleasantly surprised to learn that there are no quotas in use there.

Just had another thought. Might be a good idea to check how fires are in any area planning on visiting. Up north where I live, at least on weekends, another fire had started, but most are about fully contained now. I hope my "crop" in the Feather River canyon made it thru all this. J/K. Smoke was not detected over the weekend finally after over a month now?

hikerduane wrote: I hope my "crop" in the Feather River canyon made it thru all this. J/K.

Funny you should mention that. One of my graduate students had his field season prematurely ended when he was chased off of an area north of and above SR70 (southern flank Red Hill) by a gun wielding "crop" guard who didn't speak English (this actually led to a very large bust up there). We are figuring that these fires mean that there will be a short period of time (a few years) when growers won't have much cover disguise their plantations under in certain areas. In the meantime, this summer's fires chased a second graduate student out of the Feather River area prematurely.

egull wrote:Just came back from a trip to the Emigrant wilderness and was pleasantly surprised to learn that there are no quotas in use there.

I just did a four-day trip up there myself, Friday-Monday. Saw tons of people, even on the cross-country. (We crossed the Granite Dome ridge from Post Corral Canyon to Ridge Lake, and saw 5 other people in that time. Didn't see anyone during the next day's X-C, though, from Ridge Lake to Upper Relief Meadow.) Enjoyed talking to everyone we met, but on the whole I think I prefer wilderness areas with quotas.

TehipiteTom wrote:I just did a four-day trip up there myself, Friday-Monday. Saw tons of people, even on the cross-country.

We were there the weekend of Aug 1-3 and also saw lots of other folks. There were three other groups camped at Chewing Gum Lake. Everyone we met was very nice and it was a great trip. So you're right , maybe not the best choice for solitude but no worries about being turned away on Labor Day.

There was a story in the local paper last winter/fall about a guy who was out day hiking last summer and he met a guy who motioned him to come closer, but he turned around and ran. There was a garden growing in the area, so when the law arrived, there was no one around.

The subject of the story you mention (the guy who ran after being told "come here") is my grad student. He was doing geologic mapping when he heard this funny hissing noise while climbing up a gully above SR70. After a few minutes of hiking he saw what the hissing noise was all about. It was a leaking connection between two hoses. Knowing immediately what he had stumbled upon, he turned around and bailed. As he was fleeing (and fortunately climbing up a side spur that bounded the gully) he was accosted by a pistol bearing man who shouted at him to "come here". For some reason, that to this day he questions, he actually replied, and quickly realized that "come here" were the only two words of English the fellow knew. My student is totally fluent in Spanish so he spoke in Spanish before a voice in his head asked "why am I doing this?" at which point he turned and ran/fell down the slope at full tilt to SR70 calling the sheriff on his cell phone in the process. Fortunately by the time the gun bearing fellow had initially accosted him my student was in a good position on higher ground (above the gully) at a decent distance (with a tricky line-of-sight) which he says would have presented a very difficult pistol shot for all but the most accomplished marksman. Nonetheless it was a frightening experience. While on the phone to the sheriff, he was told to wait along SR70 until a deputy came along, but he was worried about what would happen if the guard guy had descended and gotten to a vehicle himself. He was then told to descend to Rich Bar but, as you probably know, some of those folks are almost as scary as the garden guards (or scarier). Eventually he met and spoke to some officers who told him he had better end his field season, because even if he didn't venture into the specific area again, he had been recognized and might be a marked man. So that was the end of his field research season. He returned to the area this summer with me and my next grad student when I started my other student off on another project (the one that ended prematurely when he was burned out of the field area).

Small world, which reminds me, thank you.