Inyo NF permit: listing planned campsites

[sierradoug]

Hi, I'm Doug, an occasional visitor (lurker) here. I just paid for a wilderness permit for a South Lake to North Lake loop trip near Bishop.

The "lovely" recreation.gov permit process asks you to choose the campsite location for every night of your hike. What a pain.

Do you think anyone ever checks with where you camp?
Also, where would a person find a map (using the names they use) that shows where all those campsites are located?
And is it possible to edit what you put down for campsites after the fact?

Thanks!

[rlown]

No one will check on you. I put in approximate areas as trips change with weather, medical, etc. Approximate position is what they might fall back on to locate you if you go missing.

[sukhoi_584th]

Yeah just put in something vaguely following your route so they know where to look for search and rescue.

[sierradoug]

Thanks for the quick replies!

So, any ideas on where to find a map showing all those campsites that uses the names in the huge list?

[rlown]

describe your route.. If you have a map or know the area, rec.gov will lead you to known spots. Part of the planning.

[erutan]

It's not like desolation wilderness which is a small heavily impacted area (or areas in the PNW / Glacier where terrain for tent camping is limited and you have to be in set cat litter boxes). It's generally a good idea to have an idea of where you want to camp each night of the trip in order to gauge your schedule & days/food allocated - once you do that just put in the region those nights are in.

There's a map of SEKI zones here (forum search is useful): http://highsierratopix.com/community/vi ... ap#p163883

You can edit it later, but I'd only do it if your route dramatically changes. I'll usually just pick zones that show my path if I'm going XC even if they're not where I'm aiming to camp just to lay better breadcrumbs.

[SSSdave]

That aspect of the recreation dot gov process is another showing it was designed by someone ignorant of users. Almost every choice is this lake or that lake as though all visitors only camp at lakes plus a few old trail camp spots. Well it is true a ridiculous percentage of backackers only ever camp at lakes "lakeitis", but modest numbers do not like some peakbaggers and photographers. They need to change that process to a zone system like that at Desolation.

[Wandering Daisy]

I personally do not like the zone system used by Desolation. It is just as much a pain. When I apply for my permit, I put in a realistic first night, then just pick a second location, and put that in for the rest of the trip. I also add one day more than I plan, just in case I decide to stay out longer or get delayed. The important thing is to get the stuff done in the 15 minutes allowed. Then, later you can go back and edit it.

There are reasons to be accurate. Like "erutan" said, is you really should do some planning of a trip. Also, if you do not have someone at home to leave your trip schedule with, it helps rescue people to find you if you do not show back up. Another reason is that it does produce some information that can be studied to better know where the usage is. The reason I sign in at trailheads in areas where permits are not even required, is to show my use- this information is often used to prioritize trail work.

[thegib]

The rec.gov page makes it hard to come up with appropriate location names for where I tend to camp. I gave up and put SEKI-OTHER for every night besides first and last. When we did walk up permitting I could tell the ranger pretty exactly my intentions (which of course might change). This makes it even more important to create a detailed itinerary for emergency contacts.

[erutan]

SEKI Zones image from the link I shared above:

http://highsierratopix.com/community/do ... &mode=view

Carl