:
Some people reserve permits, don’t use them, and then never cancel their reservations. Yes, this is a problem. Yes, a financial incentive to cancel unused permits might help. Nothing short of banning all reservations will eliminate the problem. Maybe they could adjust the quotas to reflect the fact that some people don’t use their permits, and maybe they have already done this. They aren’t going to ban reservations, so this issue should have no bearing on the petition.
:
Reservations are a necessity. My friend, Gary, lives in Atlanta. My friend, Sabrina, lives in England. They both love to hike and climb in the Sierra. Planning a trip to the Sierra requires, you guessed it, planning. It involves plane tickets, a rental car, probably hotel and/or campground reservations, and wilderness permits. Many wilderness permits and campground reservations are available six months in advance. Six months is fine with me, but I wouldn’t mind something shorter.
:
I thought of an idea while hiking today (nice to live in Southern California).
Quota ~20% of permits for 'walk in'. The rest are reserved online.
If your permit is for July 8, and you live 1000+ miles from the trail head (it is expensive for you to get there), then have a special provision. First of all, a $15+ refund is no incentive as these people that far away lose
a lot more $$$ canceling.
The special provision is that if you have to cancel (family emergency, illness, etc.), then if you cancel within ~4-5 days your permits become immediately available to anyone online or walk-in. You then have priority for the number in your party that cancelled for the permits in the 'walk-in' quota pool for a future date of your choice within that season. This would be basically swapping permits.
Exceptions would be for highly sought after dates (long weekends), so people don't game the system.
You could only do this once per season.
Thoughts?
