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giantbrookie wrote: ↑Sun May 31, 2020 3:24 pm
Now for the campsite selection. There is a required box for the first night then optional boxes for the next ones. There a pull-down menu which will not even remotely cover most of the options. For example, there is no pull down option at all for anything up Morgan Creek, you should note that you are not required to use the pull down options (thank goodness) and you can manually type in, which is what I did. At first when I looked at the options it looked as if I had to select from pull-down options in which case I would have had to have lied and said I'd camp at Pine Lake even though I'm going up Morgan Creek. I realized that was absurd so I simply typed in the box (the actual intended destination) and found out that was in fact OK.
Good to know. I was under the impression that you had to use the drop down options and previously fudged a little (or a lot) on where I planned to camp the first night and sometimes later in the trip as well. That opinion was reinforced when I got a walk-up permit in 2018 and the ranger asked for my campsites. Several of my selections evidently weren't on the drop down because she asked if there was a different name or location nearby. I ended up with locations like Crater Meadows instead of Crater Creek which really aren't that close on entirely different trails, but it worked for the ranger . I always hoped that if anything happened to me, SAR would believe my wife and the map of my hike that I leave with her rather than what was inputted in the reservation system.
My Troop has an extra wilderness permits for(12 people) Agnew Meadow on July 5th. We might have another one on the same day. This trip was planned over a year ago and we got the permits 5 months ago. I know I'm going to get a lot of flak over this, but, i rather you all know. Nothing is in my name, normally it is. With all this stuff going on at the same time, is hurting everyone. If you are interested, let me know. I hope this is legal.
For these first few years recreation dot gov has used lake names for destinations, public trailheads for starting points, and maintained trails for routes, because that is what the majority of backpackers are familiar with. Thus a wise way to start a program that is complicated. And the site has been regularly evolving their processes as they understand how to improve, in part by listening to their users including resources like this forum. Likewise, specific wilderness areas and parks, have been evolving the way such is done for their areas and part of that process is looking at what has been working elsewhere, especially for the smaller areas that look to those with better resources to figure whatever out. Inyo NF is particular has been a leader so. For example, ideas like night box pick-ups. I will suggest people use the recreation dot gov formal feedback system to make suggestions as that is obviously going to be looked at by those most likely to make changes.
Even on this board with on average much more experienced versus others, the overwhelming majority of posts discussing itineraries all use lake names and public trailheads to identify where they go and where they began. But there are others here, we most experienced enthusiasts, that long ago looked at all this more broadly, sometimes going to totally lakeless destinations and beginning our hikes from roadside pullouts instead of actual trailheads. I've hiked many miles in from roadsides, even in Yosemite, never using trails at all. On some of my hikes, I look at destination options and tell rangers, I'm not going to any of the lake choices and responses are usually "Well go ahead and choose what is closest." A few parks and wildernesses like Desolation understanding the future, set up zone destinations where they maintained recognizable USGS topo names for a zone's name. That is likely what we will increasingly see though all this will take time so we need patience. Likewise a similar strategy can be applied for those off trail users that start hiking in more obscure roadside locations.
Has anyone spoken with an Inyo NF person on how one is supposed to obtain permits now for wilderness access from trailheads that are not in the recreation dot gov system? In the past one needed to do so through the INF offices. For instance I have an interest in going in within the next couple weeks through one of the 2 obscure Crowley trailheads into lower Hilton Creek areas across the JMW boundary but well below the Hilton Creek lakes east of spectacular colorful Nevahbe Ridge. In those sagebrush and lush green stream meadow landscapes are where early wildflowers like mule ears bloom in late June though because it is out of sight, out of mind, few are aware of unlike the popular lower McGee Creek areas. Never been a quota for that and is most often used by equestrians for day riding of those living down in the Crowley area. Just emailed INF to hopefully find out what they have to say. Imagine climbers are having some of the same issues as their starting points are sometimes not regular trailheads. Will see how responsive they are via trying to get a warm person on the clogged telephone system.
. I always hoped that if anything happened to me, SAR would believe my wife and the map of my hike that I leave with her rather than what was inputted in the reservation system.