Usually I'd admit everything is my fault, but in this case, blame it on park services...and of course, Mother Nature.Hobbes wrote:... @ TM. It was bad enough when they didn't open the store, but the deal killer was lack of potable water and sewage disposal.
A little history... In normal (regular) snow years, as soon as the road/pass opens up, two groups of "set-up" crews are sent up to the Meadows early, ~25 to a crew, and are put to work setting up the tent cabins, the store, the Lodge, and Visitors center. There is also another crew, a small water crew, sent up at the same time, just to deal with water and sewage issues. As to potable water - pipes first are sanitized/pressurized/analyzed/ certified - all before turning on the area's potable waterworks. That part is relatively easy.
Sewage is another matter as TM utilizes large, evaporation, sewage "ponds", located ~1/4 mile north/below/downhill of the Visitor Center. Well, as no toilets can operate until water lines are certified, and these employee crews still have to go, someone in charge (they? Aramark? Yos?) mistakenly put 5 port-o-lets in front of the TM store parking lot - supposedly only to be used by these employees. Turns out tourists also used them too - they overflowed - a real fecal disaster.
So, this last season (the high snow year), after the previous year's parking lot crapola, "they" mandated no large work crews were allowed up in the Meadows until after the water and toilets were already turned on. Only the small crew of three was sent up just for this purpose. Unfortunately, the snow remaining on the ground was still above the sides of the sewage ponds - thus no flushing until this melted down - thus no large work crews were allowed up until this melted off, and this didn't happen until 3 - 4 long weeks after 120 was opened. Even though Tioga Pass opened late June, and the Meadows were dry enough the early part of July, the store was not opened until the 27th.
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