High Sierra Topix

@dougieb
Yes, unfortunately both of those destinations are on a Bubbs Creek permit.

So now we have two "big name routes"- Rae Lakes Loop and HST that have sucked up all the permits and made it nearly impossible to access locations off these main routes. What a mess. Particularly Avalanche Pass- you are only on the Rae Lakes Loop a few miles and no reason there cannot be a "pass through" permit and you camp at Sphinx Creek first night. Same with East Lake - just get across Bubbs Creek at Junction Meadow and up the trail a ways to camp first night.

The Yosemite "pass through" permit is a good method- lets those who go beyond LYV be on a different quota. It makes no difference in trail crowds because day hikers outnumber backpackers by I suspect 100:1.

Thank you both. That really blows. Avalanche Pass is a completely different area than the rest of Bubbs Creek. Bunch of nonsense. Oh well, I'm looking for a late season trip anyway and I'll either do a walk up or...

Oh well, I'm looking for a late season trip anyway and I'll either do a walk up or...

I think the “or” is what a lot of people may consider this year, especially if the National Forests don’t reinstate the pre-covid walk-in permits.

maverick wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 9:55 pm

Oh well, I'm looking for a late season trip anyway and I'll either do a walk up or...

I think the “or” is what a lot of people may consider this year, especially if the National Forests don’t reinstate the pre-covid walk-in permits.

Yeah, the recreation.gov permit system hasn't worked for me in a long time. If the only legal option to visit public land is to try and click faster than the bots on the internet at some hour in the morning when I'm at work, then I will consider the "or" option.

regardless of the rec.gov issues, it does seem like an avalanche pass (or perhaps "sphinx creek"?) permit would make a ton of sense.

that said, i'm unclear if adding six (or however many) permits per day for a sphinx creek/avalanche pass permit would necessarily require removing six from the existing bubbs allotment -- which would be less of a slam dunk. i don't see why that would be necessary from a logistical standpoint, but perhaps there are hard caps on this stuff.

I'm going to post this on the other thread (the petition one) too, as both deal with the numerous aspects of this "Permits Kerfuffle" - which is presumably going to roll out for Sierra NF on rec.gov soon.

This note is to encourage HST members to phone their local congress-person to make them aware of the problems.

I had a surprisingly long (45 minutes) talk yesterday with the local representative for my congressman. She was a backpacker too so was very cogent in understanding what the issues were. As I explained the possible outcomes for the new Sierra NF system (if like Inyo's) she realized that it could make backpacking as we have known it almost impossible - especially re "W" permits. She even implied that she personally knew of at least 3 backpacking friends who would do something like book a bunch of permits for "insurance" and then not bother to cancel them - or even realize the ramifications of that.

It was fruitful discussion, she took good notes and is going to act on them! Getting some push from the "bigger wigs" could help us get our voices heard perhaps, as for sure the NF Service did not seem to ask for public input on this switch-over. We on HST could have given them a bunch of decent suggestions if we had been asked!

OK, that was it. Best ~ Michaelzim

At this point, congress is a joke. Good luck!

If you’re in Ukiah, then the Congressman is Jared Huffman who chairs the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife. As chair, he’s able to hold hearings on this issue. I met him back in the day when he was first getting into politics and running for the Marin Water board and found him to actually be a real person, not a typical politician. I guess it’s time for me to write him yet another letter. . .

time for term limits across all politicians.