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Re: Penalty for not adhering to entry point

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2018 2:12 pm
by LMBSGV
you aren't held to the campsites you put down on your permit . . . it's understood that people will revise routes depending on the situation.
Last year, when I was picking up a permit, one of the rangers in Bishop explained it to me in almost exactly those words.

Re: Penalty for not adhering to entry point

Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2018 3:53 pm
by maiathebee
Lumbergh21 wrote:Similar question regarding how you fill out where you will be camping each night. Last year, hiking out of Mammoth, the drop down menu didn't include my first night camp site. Was it because I wanted to camp over 20 miles from the trailhead, and no one thought to include that site for that reason or was it because they were trying to control the number of people camping in that area by controlling which trailheads included that campsite as a first night option? I just selected the site option closest to where I actually planned to camp and camped where I had planned to camp. By the way, there was only one other person camped in the area, which had established sites for at least 8 tents, and this person was at least 1/4 mile from where I was camped.
Putting down your planned campsites is less for impact management than for SAR purposes should you go missing. You don't have to stick to it.

Re: Penalty for not adhering to entry point

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2018 10:36 pm
by wildhiker
maiathebee remarks
Putting down your planned campsites is less for impact management than for SAR purposes should you go missing. You don't have to stick to it.
And this is one of the great things about the Sierra! So many other high use backcountry areas (examples: Grand Teton NP, Rocky Mountain NP, Grand Canyon NP) require you to stay in specific sites each night, with no deviation.

-Phil

Re: Penalty for not adhering to entry point

Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2018 11:05 pm
by limpingcrab
Wait, so it's not ok for me to get a permit at the start of the season for 150 nights, bring it every time I go backpacking, and just pretend that I'm passing through on my extended trip whenever I get checked!?

Dang it

Re: Penalty for not adhering to entry point

Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 9:43 am
by mrphil
Last I heard, after spending quite a while talking to and hiking with a wilderness ranger in YNP, the base fine stood at $300, with an escort out of the area, where you then are given the option of going to the permit office for the right paperwork or leaving the park. Enforcement levels are completely up to the ranger to decide upon, based on severity of the offense, location, degree to which problems persist, attitude, etc. The one aspect of it all that was most interesting, and entirely understandable is, just like traffic cops, when areas are problematic or prone to heavy use with a lot of specific types of violations occurring, they're given the mandate from above to to not only ramp up enforcement efforts and visible presence, but to set very public examples of demanding permits and writing citations. And in those areas, again, just like traffic cops, they know just where to sit and how to catch you in an inescapable gauntlet when you least expect it. One week it might be permits here, the next illegal fires there, bear cans always and everywhere...you never know, but safe to say that they're all pretty much more savvy than probably 90% of the people out there. What you end up doing is a matter of calculating your risk factor with a lot of variables thrown in.

Re: Penalty for not adhering to entry point

Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 2:28 pm
by rightstar76
So..The preservation of the wilderness depends on us following the rules. It is our responsibility not to be that person who doesn't. :nod:

Re: Penalty for not adhering to entry point

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 12:00 pm
by rightstar76
Bump.

I'd like to add that the preservation of the wilderness also depends on us as a society investing in those who enforce the rules. It is our responsiblity to speak up when that isn't happening. I'm all for volunteering, but when it seems like it's becoming a replacement for paid staff, it's our responsibility to speak up.

If the volunteering is a couple of hours cutting branches on the Tahoe Rim Trail, fine, but when I see stuff like "performing monitoring or administrative duties" or "Hike in Desolation Wilderness and be contacted by visitors, answering recreation and resource protection questions and providing responses within the scope of your authority and skill level" that seems less like volunteering and more like working for free. I remember the professionalism of rangers in Deso and they were paid. Not volunteers. They were super dedicated and very good at what they did. Now that was a while ago, so maybe it's changed and if that's the case, that's not a good thing.

http://southtahoenow.com/story/05/08/20 ... lake-tahoe

http://www.desowv.org/information/activity-types

Re: Penalty for not adhering to entry point

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 2:12 pm
by AlmostThere
rightstar76 wrote: Fri May 10, 2019 12:00 pm
If the volunteering is a couple of hours cutting branches on the Tahoe Rim Trail, fine, but when I see stuff like "performing monitoring or administrative duties" or "Hike in Desolation Wilderness and be contacted by visitors, answering recreation and resource protection questions and providing responses within the scope of your authority and skill level" that seems less like volunteering and more like working for free.
If a volunteer gets the training, he/she can obtain a stipend for the effort of going on trail patrols. While not a law enforcement officer, they are able to write fines for basic violations -- fire where no fires allowed, no valid permit in hand, etc. And they have a way to contact law enforcement. Many Forest Service employees/interns also fall in this category, not law enforcement but carrying a ticket book.

Re: Penalty for not adhering to entry point

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 10:15 pm
by HYKNRKS
Rangers have "borrowed" an entry from one trailhead for another, just swapped one-for-one on a trip when my party had one more than the quota allowed for the day. Sometimes it helps to ask.

Re: Penalty for not adhering to entry point

Posted: Sat May 11, 2019 1:56 am
by rightstar76
.