High Sierra Topix

ltm01 wrote:Thank you Robbow, you were correct and a quick call sorted it out for me.

Glad things worked out for you.

Since we're leaving early from Phoenix and want to get on the trail the same day and not gamble on a walk up permit I wanted to get a reservation. I'm sure there is someplace with a good description of this process, but I could't find it.

I hope this is the right place to post this, but I just got off the phone with the Inyo Forest Commercial Wilderness Permits office in Bishop. 1) Don't go to recreation.gov. Search Inyo Forest Wilderness Permits, that should come up as the first search choice so. Click that and you go to Inyo Forest Wilderness Permits. See on the left under the little square map "find permits". They said on first drop down chose overnight not cross country. Second drop down gives you a choice of all the trails. You can pick a particular one or all trails where you call scroll down the list of trails and see whats available. Chose range button and enter starting and ending dates. Enter group size. Hit search. Under trail and permit type is the trail you chose and to the right are the available dates. Click on the trail you chose under trail and permit type and read the trail description before you click book permit. The form that comes up is pretty clear. I did a loop so I didn't have to change the exit point. For some reason it puts in your entrance date automatically, so you have to change that even if you chose range. They told me they have some things to iron out with the online stuff. In itinerary they said just put one place in, then other/don't know becomes a choice and you can use that. The rest is pretty clear. Again, read everything if you've never done this.
I almost booked the wrong place. They were very understanding when I called and asked them to help me.
Important to me: You can go online to your trip and confirm it when you're 2 weeks or closer to your entry date and they will hold your trail pass all day. Otherwise, you have to pick it up before 10 AM or it goes to walk ins.

I'll probably forget all this by the time I do another one.

Thank you Maverick for sending me this link about permit pickup.

http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/inyo/pass ... 6#reserved

And thank YOU for sharing it on this thread, Robmannn!

We might need to make the distinction between "hiking" (during one day) and "backpacking" overnight for multiple days.

In some jurisdictions, you can hike all you want in one day, no permits required. However, as soon as you are staying out overnight, then the wilderness permit is required.

In a scant few jurisdictions, you cannot even enter the particular wilderness without a permit (day or overnight).

In most cases, you might need to get one overnight permit to start your trip, and that is all you need for the entire trip even if you cross from one jurisdiction into another. For example, you can backpack the entire Pacific Crest Trail on one permit if it is prepared correctly.

Years ago I was going into the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park. I inquired in advance about a wilderness permit, and I was told that there were Zero available for the time period of interest, and that was because I was not a resident of the state (state residents had some other deal). I was all set to enter the park for 3-4 days. So, I spent the first night just outside the park boundary. Then I entered the park and covered some miles. There is a place where my trail left the park and then re-entered, so it criss-crossed the boundary. I spent my second night just outside the boundary. Then I continued back into the park and down to a standard trailhead. At that point, there was a park ranger monitoring those coming off the trail, and she was checking their names off her list of those who had wilderness permits. When she got to me, she could not find my name on her official list. I explained that I had slept outside the park boundary for two nights, even though I had traveled along those trails during the day. The ranger was a little pissed, but she waved me on.