Challenges in getting permits this year

[Richardtr6]

Anyone experiencing the same challenges in getting wilderness permits for the Inyo trailheads this year? This is insane. I have failed six times to snag a Piute Pass wilderness permit. All of the popular trailheads are gone within 1 second of becoming available at 7am in the morning.It has always been competitive but not like this! Interested in others observations...

[rlown]

what dates are you looking for? Guess we could all put in for a permit for you and put you down for an alternate leader.
Might as well play with the recreation.gov site.

[c9h13no3]

Anyone experiencing the same challenges in getting wilderness permits for the Inyo trailheads this year? This is insane. I have failed six times to snag a Piute Pass wilderness permit. All of the popular trailheads are gone within 1 second of becoming available at 7am in the morning.It has always been competitive but not like this! Interested in others observations...

This is why I quit playing the permit game a few years ago. It's so stupid competing with bots. If I want to go to a popular area, I just day hike it.

[balzaccom]

You are correct. We have a couple of permits for this summer, but one came via lottery in Yosemite, and the other was for a less popular trailhead in Inyo. We will have to see what happens once summer gets underway. Who knows? Maybe those bots will cancel when they realize that they actually have to hike up into the mountains.

Or they won't cancel...and won't pick up their permit and the USFS will learn something from this exercise...fingers crossed.

[TurboHike]

Five days ago I got a permit for Bishop pass on my first try. This is for August 2022 entry. Group size = 1. Add this data point to your sample.

I am not convinced anyone is using bots. Instead, I think groups are going after permits. For example, consider a group of 3. If each person logs in and tries to get a permit for a group of size 3, they have 3 chances to get that permit. If they are all successful, they now have a total of 9 permits in their collective shopping carts. So, they exchange text messages, one person completes the reservation process, the other two exit, which frees up 6 permits that show up on recreation.gov about 15 to 20 minutes later. So.... if you are not successful at 7 am pacific time, stay with it, sometimes permits come up around 7:15 or so. Today at 7:35 am there were 6 permits for Lamarck available, 1 for Bishop, 3 for Kearsarge, etc.

[Wandering Daisy]

I think there is also over-booking. So far in advance, many may be uncertain of their group size or overly optimistic. There is little penalty for over-booking since some permits are same cost regardless of number of people. Some have $5 per person cost- but it is insignificant if just adding one extra. When I lead climbing trips, I would inevitably have one or two people who just did not show up at the trailhead. I think this is fairly common.

Some permits will come up later when people cancel trips. Bishop Pass is a tough one. Last year there were Lamark Col permits freeing up later- not so much for Bishop Pass. Yes, it stinks. Makes me want to sneak in.

I honestly cannot believe, that after 20 years of easily getting walk-in permits anywhere I wanted, that all of a sudden there is an explosion of use. Likely the permit system, more than demand, that is causing the problem. Required in-person pickup eliminates this, but I do not think Inyo has any plans to do that. West side forests do that, as well as SEKI and Yosemite.

I had hoped that when I got older I could do more short trips. With the difficulty as costs of permits, I am tending to instead plan fewer long trips each year instead of shorter ones, and just bite the bullet and start out with more weight than I prefer to carry. This also works better because with 10-12 day trips, you can go in some of the less popular trailheads and still get to where you want to go.

[michaelzim]

Have been having the same issue this past week trying to get a single Bishop Pass permit for the next open date (= mid August). Finger zapping the "Refresh" button 7:00 am and as fast as possible. Have missed getting one though did get the "Error" message twice about 'heavy booking traffic'. Have been aware of the wait 15 to 20 minutes aspect but must have been unlucky. Switched to SEKI and got a Bubbs Creek permit first try. Maybe just having one less item to input for the refresh process helps too.
So yes, getting a Bishop Pass, or other super popular TH at Inyo, currently seem to be a challenge.

M.

[alpinemike]

I honestly cannot believe, that after 20 years of easily getting walk-in permits anywhere I wanted, that all of a sudden there is an explosion of use. Likely the permit system, more than demand, that is causing the problem. Required in-person pickup eliminates this, but I do not think Inyo has any plans to do that. West side forests do that, as well as SEKI and Yosemite.

I absolutely agree with this and have found that getting permits, whether walk up or reserved has been harder than ever. I understand use will go up as time goes on, but I just don't understand how it's gotten so bad in the last 2 years. And I think the no walk ups is the problem. Now more people, myself included has to try and reserve a permit months in advance.

I wish there was an easy solution to all these problems that the agencies would listen to. That's our biggest problem. Lot's of ideas, but if no one listens and acts on it then it's all a moot point. And it just becomes the reality of getting into the wilderness that we have to be burdened with.

[Flamingo]

Richardtr6 -- I feel your pain. I have nostalgia for my youth when I rarely reserved anything, and nearly always got same-day walk-up permits.

I think there's hope. Last year I had repeated success with the "virtual walk-in" permits that are released 14 days prior to start date. I also managed to score a day-prior walk-in permit for Mount Whitney (!); there were numerous no-shows that day.

Regarding Piute and Bishop passes, I've been feeling like the North/South Lake Loop is the "new Rae Lakes Loop" in terms of popularity.

As TurboHike mentioned, I'm not sure bots are grabbing the permits. Many people---including myself---are willing to open Recreation.gov at 7 AM and click their mouse fast like a crazy person. So, it's a stupid game lots of us are playing. If you have arthritis in your mouse hand, may God help you.

For some perspective, does anyone remember back in the day reserving wilderness permits by POSTAL MAIL? Oh boy, that was painful. I have a vague memory of Yosemite and SEKI being mail-only well into the 2000's.

[Bishop_Bob]

As others mentioned, it was crazy like this last year, but *curiously* the parking lot for North Lake last year in July was less than half full. Likewise, I saw correspondingly fewer people in the backcountry compared to prior years.

It's quite clear that there's a contingent out there grabbing permits in Jan/Feb for multiple dates in the summer so that they can pick the date that suits them best when summer rolls around. With no serious financial penalty for not cancelling permit reservations, there's little incentive to even bother getting the $5 back.

I ranted last year about a similar experience I had at a Yellowstone campground: two-thirds of the sites were empty (I counted) even though all sites had been reserved months earlier.