I tell you the people I'd like to avoid - the Ranger behind the desk at the station. I'm sick of wasting half a weekend trying to get a piece of paper from them. I understand the need to check in - computers are better than people at that. And I understand the need to educate Joe Public, but after 127 bear lectures and a dozen real encounters with bears, I think I can give a better lecture. Why not get bear safety "certified" and mail out the permit? Do the whole thing online and have real-time GIS info of trail use and emergency contact info. If the Ranger has special condition information, post it online and let everyone know all at once. Half the time the info I get in the station is dead wrong because they've never been where I'm going.
I would love to be able to drive straight to a trailhead Friday night and take off on my schedule. Why do I have to wait around for the Ranger to open shop Saturday morning, listen to the bear lecture again, and then drive to the trailhead? I could be 10 miles down the trail.
The desk Ranger, that's the human encounter I would like to avoid.
Totally agree. But at the rate with with the NPS adopts technology we won't see anything like that for another 5 to 10 years. Consider how long it took for them to get rid of the snail-mail based Whitney permitting process - almost 20 years after the start of the www era.
