High Sierra Topix

LMBSGV wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 5:00 pm Grampy, here's what the Yosemite website says:

What if my group is arriving in more than one vehicle?


Groups with lodging or camping reservations, wilderness permits, and Half Dome permits may arrive in more than one vehicle. An occupant in each vehicle must provide a copy or photo of the driver license belonging to the person who made the reservation to be permitted to enter.

So it reads like you can do 2 cars if the other person has a copy of the driver's license of the person who made the reservation.

Thank you for finding this !

I just now got off the phone with the wilderness office to get my permit emailed to me. I got through on my 6th call. Maybe I was lucky, or maybe things are getting more streamlined. We chatted less than 10 min about the regulations. I called the Wilderness Permit Office number (760-873-2483) at 10AM PDT. Very pleasant person on the other end.

The walk-up stuff for ~7-14 days from now did start going up on recreation.gov this morning probably about 9 AM. It was in reverse alphabetical order. Finally got a Lamarck Lakes permit around 11 AM. Not sure if they've finished the whole alphabet yet or not.

Bishop_Bob wrote: ↑Mon Jun 22, 2020 10:20 am I just now got off the phone with the wilderness office to get my permit emailed to me. I got through on my 6th call. Maybe I was lucky, or maybe things are getting more streamlined. We chatted less than 10 min about the regulations. I called the Wilderness Permit Office number (760-873-2483) at 10AM PDT. Very pleasant person on the other end.

Did you just keep pressing '0' when it said the line was busy? I do and then I get dropped after a few times/rings if and when it goes through.

2020hiker wrote: ↑Mon Jun 22, 2020 1:20 pm

Bishop_Bob wrote: ↑Mon Jun 22, 2020 10:20 am I just now got off the phone with the wilderness office to get my permit emailed to me. I got through on my 6th call. Maybe I was lucky, or maybe things are getting more streamlined. We chatted less than 10 min about the regulations. I called the Wilderness Permit Office number (760-873-2483) at 10AM PDT. Very pleasant person on the other end.

Did you just keep pressing '0' when it said the line was busy? I do and then I get dropped after a few times/rings if and when it goes through.

Yeah just dial that number, press 0. It'll ring for a while them dump you back to the main menu after no answer. Press 0 again. Eventually someone will answer. Last week I got through before 8:10 when starting dialing at 8 AM.

Naively, when the tone gave a busy signal, I hung up a re-dialed.

Just got through after 24 calls. Mostly dialed the Wilderness Permit office number, but the one that finally got through was the White Mountain Ranger District number. A bit surprisingly, the call only lasted 1 minute -- the ranger looked up my reservation number, confirmed the entry date, confirmed that we'll be bringing bear canisters, and then confirmed my email address. Cutting the calls down from 10 minutes each to 1 minute each should save a lot of time for folks on both ends going forward.

The Hoover Wilderness abutting the northeast side of Yosemite Park is mostly on the Humboldt-Toiyabe national forest. According to their website, some of their trailheads, such as Leavitt Meadows, Buckeye Creek, Twin Lakes, Green Lakes, and Virginia Lakes, have overnight quotas during the quota season from last Friday in June (that's June 26 this year) to September 15. A few lesser used trailheads, such as the Little Walker River and Molybdenite Creek, never have quotas.

The Hoover Wilderness quota trailhead permits can now be reserved on recreation.gov. The forest website says to pick up your reserved (or walk-up) permit at the office in Bridgeport. But the website also says the office is closed because of COVID-19. So how do you get your permit?

I phone the Bridgeport ranger district office (760-932-7070) on Friday and got a message telling me that the office is closed and there is no one to answer the phone, but staff are checking periodically for voicemail messages and will return calls. So I left a message asking about how to actually get a permit. A forest service staffer called back today (Monday) and left a voicemail message for me (I was out in the garden). Here is what he said:

If you reserve a permit for a quota trailhead in recreation.gov, the forest will email the actual permit to you and you should print it to take with you (presumably OK to have it on your phone as well). If you want to start at a non-quota trailhead, just fill out a self-registration at the trailhead. He said they are also "hoping to start walk-up permits on June 26" for the quota trailheads - no elaboration on how/where those will be issued.

-Phil

Phil, thanks for the information. I leave for a trip in Hoover in a week and have yet to receive anything in the mail. I'll cross my fingers that this goes smoothly. I am so excited for my first Sierra backpack of the season. So far I've been one of the lucky ones with my permit reservations. I worked through recreation.gov for Hoover, emailed seki for a trip out of Alta, and mailed in an app for blackcap basin and received them all. Website, email, mail - one of each!

It does not appear that walk-in permits for Sierra National Forest are on Recreation.gov. If I understand, all seasonal offices (Huntington Lake, Kaiser Pass Road, etc.) are closed. Has anyone picked up a walk-in permit at the Prather station lately?

Forgive me if this has been asked and answered. My searches have not yielded much info.