almostthere
Trail Wise!
putting on my hiking shoes....
Posts: 696
|
Post by almostthere on May 28, 2020 8:38:35 GMT -8
I've been calling and the permit goes in the night box. But that seems only workable for trailheads that don’t have or need limits. I do want to figure out how to get out into the less popular areas, so hope that it will be possible soon to do permits by phone, for example, and have them available for pick-up. Seems like that could be done with minimal contact between staff and public. All of the permits I am choosing have quotas. I am getting walk-ins the day before I go. I call, they put it in the night box. I only have one reservation at the moment and it is looking unlikely that I will use it as Yosemite's wilderness office is not even hooked to voicemail, just rings and rings, and I needed to know if the rule about getting a pass prior to entering the park applied... no information, no go, because I am not about getting the cars of my friends towed away in the middle of a trip. The start date is mid-June so it's looking likely that the park will either not be open or just have opened - and without the certainty of knowing the new way of doing things, I'm going to bump it forward a few months. I lose the money if I don't.
There are also areas with no permits ever, like Jennie Wilderness, or free no-quota like Golden Trout - which is btw full of "trails" so untrodden that you do need navigation skills and a tolerance for climbing over fallen trees. The Forest Service has not stopped issuing permits - they just aren't making it blazingly obvious that they are. This is of course depending on the forest - the popular ones, like Inyo, had to stop. Mammoth Lakes and other communities were bearing the brunt of that. Too many tourists who don't care about social distancing. Pick a forest that isn't famous and you'll have different luck. Trailheads in Sequoia NF have been opening up.
|
|
Hungry Jack
Trail Wise!
Living and dying in 3/4 time...
Posts: 3,809
|
Post by Hungry Jack on May 28, 2020 9:06:22 GMT -8
Little Hungry and I went by Chicago's lakefront yesterday to play some catch. The City had put up snow fencing (that wire-braided rough wood stuff 3' tall) to block the bike paths and such.
There is an exercise area with pullup bars, dip stations, etc that had been fenced off. The devotees apparently had had enough, and the fence was pushed down and people were working out--at what appeared to be acceptable distances.
I really don't blame people for getting fed up with it. Closing off the parks when the weather is good after people have been cooped up for 2.5 months seems like a bad idea. Most data suggest that being outside is much safer, and frankly the vast majority of those I saw in the park running, working out, etc. were young and generally in the low risk category. The Chicago lakefront can get very crowded, but they could always keep the beaches closed while keeping the running and cycling paths open (they are separate now).
|
|
tomas
Trail Wise!
Posts: 1,906
|
Post by tomas on May 28, 2020 9:25:58 GMT -8
If that is the trailhead I'm thinking of (40/70?), well that crowdedness is not merely due to the coronavirus. It was often overflowing even before it; the line of no parking signs also pre-date the pandemic. Yep, that's the one. It's my favorite access point to the AT and I know a few places to guerilla camp with wonderful overlooks of Hagerstown and surrounding area. Unless everybody was headed south the conga line northwards must have made the climb up from Pine Knob Shelter a miasma of CV19. No thanks, that's a hard stretch when it's empty and the air isn't an airborne hazard. The much smaller Thurston Griggs trailhead is less crowded with a much better opportunity to find parking, though there is a bigger climb to get to the AT (but Black Rock is closer to it than to 70). Bigger climb up? Oy, my aching knees. I'm thinking of checking out part of the Tuscarora Trail. Know anything about it? That's a trail I have been eyeing for a long time. Supposedly it is what the AT was 20-30 years ago...fewer people and access points. I've heard it's nice, but for some reason got it in my head several years ago that overnight camping wasn't allowed. I remember looking at the trail from the MD/PA border northwards and seeing it went through a lot of state gameland which prohibit overnight camping.
|
|
|
Post by High Sierra Fan on May 28, 2020 15:03:29 GMT -8
One thing? “Young and fit” means you usually don’t die but not at all you don’t gets infected, become a virus shedder and proceed to infect people you come in contact with.
That’s why this one spreads so much people not feeling ill infecting others. It’s why I’m rather certain the death toll has only started.
Countless nations around the globe have records that prove behavioral efforts (self isolating, social distancing, masks) DO work: our nation is not going to be one of them.
|
|
mk
Trail Wise!
North Texas
Posts: 1,217
|
Post by mk on May 30, 2020 13:06:20 GMT -8
“Young and fit” means you usually don’t die but not at all you don’t gets infected, become a virus shedder and proceed to infect people you come in contact with. This seems to have gotten lost in all the media hoopla and scrambled information. When they talk about health screenings and temperature checks in relation to "opening up", I just think, "meh. That won't do any good for those are asymptomatic but shedding virus." I'm continuing to stay "distant" for awhile, at least.
|
|