2018 Backcountry Permit Buzz

[orin]

Syrio,

One week long trip I did in the Great Bear & Bob Marshall starts at the end of the Spotted Bear road. Hike to Pentagon guard station, climb over the pass into the Dolly Varden drainage and down valley to Chair Mountain. Climb up to Chair Mountain and then along the Trilobite Range past Gable Peaks and Trilobite Peak to Dean Lake. Then over Switchback Pass and back to Pentagon guard station and out. It includes a fair bit of valley hiking but also has great views. No permits or anything required and probably very few people.

[Thekels1]

Hello! We got our first pick confirmation yesterday at 2:13pm! We had a time stamp of 10:12am when we submitted the permit.

ENTER - CHIEF MOUNTAIN (TRAILHEAD)
COS - COSLEY LAKE
Fires; NO
Segment; Length 8.30
Elevation; Up 257 | Down 744

MOJ - MOKOWANIS JCT
Fires; NO
Segment; Length 5.10
Elevation; Up 58 | Down 0

KOO - KOOTENAI LK
Fires; YES
Segment; Length 11.00
Elevation; Up 2410 | Down 2975

EXIT - GOAT HAUNT RANGER STATION

[Sue Z]

Thanks for posting, Thekels1!
You've packed a lot of beauty into a three night trip! (With time left to dayhike on day 2.)

[paul]

I'm glad for the people who are getting permits, however I really wonder how the park service is determining order of applications. I've seen several permits with timestamps well after my timestamp. I know they were going to look at the system logs and try to move people who had errors further up the queue. But I had errors as soon as a few seconds after 10am. So which errors got special treatment? It's seems like it was pretty arbitrary to me.

[joshillian]

I've had many of the same observations Paul. Frustrating. But if worse come to worse I'll still be there and will try and make some walk-up magic happen

[BombDiggityNate]

Is it correct to assume they will not be checking permits today (Good Friday) through Sunday, and will begin again on Monday?

[McKee80]

I hesitate to even post this because with the way this thing is going, I doubt it will help anyone figure out where they stand. Our submittal time was 10:04:17. Like everyone, finger on the button a couple seconds after 10:00. Like everyone, kicked out and had to go back in. Page timed out, then got through. Good luck everyone!

9-7-2018 - COS - COSLEY LAKE
Fires; NO
Segment; Length 8.30
Elevation; Up 257 | Down 744

9-8-2018 - MOL - MOKOWANIS LK
Fires; NO
Segment; Length 6.20
Elevation; Up 138 | Down 0

9-9-2018 - MOL - MOKOWANIS LK
Fires; NO
Segment; Length 0.00
Elevation; Up 0 | Down 0

9-10-2018 - KOO - KOOTENAI LK
Fires; YES
Segment; Length 12.10
Elevation; Up 2410 | Down 3055

9-11-2018 - FRA - FRANCIS
Fires; NO
Segment; Length 9.10
Elevation; Up 1055 | Down 200

9-12-2018 - BOU - BOULDER
Fires; NO
Segment; Length 7.90
Elevation; Up 2215 | Down 190

9-13-2018 - HOL - HOLE IN WALL
Fires; NO
Segment; Length 4.50
Elevation; Up 190 | Down 1090

9-14-2018 - JAN - JANET
Fires; YES
Segment; Length 7.20
Elevation; Up 260 | Down 1680

EXIT - GOAT HAUNT RANGER STATION (TRAILHEAD)
Segment; Length 3.50
Elevation; Up 0 | Down 760


TOTALS;
Trip length 58.80 miles
Elevation up 6,525 feet
Elevation down 7,719 feet

[McKee80]

Is it correct to assume they will not be checking permits today (Good Friday) through Sunday, and will begin again on Monday?

Ours came in this morning around 10:30 EDT

[thorn726]

thanks// today was questionable.. seems like they did not process over the weekends, so now we can wonder if they are taking monday off... folks Please note your timestamp if you are letting us know you got your permit... although not sure how much difference it makes given the crazy times we're seeing here, many of us would love to know what timestamp you had so we can stress ourselves out (ha).. agreeing with others, it is starting to look arbitrary given some of these timestamps are WAY later than others.. i'm just glad my choices appear to be on the low priority (we're just looking for a shorter out and back one site only)// still hoping//

[NDjason]

A buddy of mine received his permit this morning. His timestamp was 10:01:25. He also received an error and was kicked out once, but was able to get back in relatively quickly. I don't know what they could be using to reorder things; we were literally sitting next to each other and hit submit at the same time when the clock hit 10:00:00.

[paul]

That's a great itinerary McKee80!

[paul]

I've had many of the same observations Paul. Frustrating. But if worse come to worse I'll still be there and will try and make some walk-up magic happen

I have a very good backup plan too, so I guess I shouldn't be too worried about what happens with my application.

[McKee80]

That's a great itinerary McKee80!

Thanks Paul (and for the good ideas when I was planning it). It'll be an adventure. Good luck on your permit.

[wnysteve]

Is it correct to assume they will not be checking permits today (Good Friday) through Sunday, and will begin again on Monday?

As someone pointed out, they received their permit today (Friday). Neither Easter nor Good Friday are U.S. Government holidays. The NY Stock Exchange closes, but it is not Government. Also, I recall one year that I received my permit on a Saturday. So, I am under the impression that during the peak of permit season, the BC office works flat out.

[joshillian]

So, I am under the impression that during the peak of permit season, the BC office works flat out.

You have to appreciate the effort. But good grief, I fail to see why any of this is not automated at this point. Suppose it could be because it is a "little used" federal system; which means it would probably require a fairly ginormous effort to get the project/funding approved, use approved sources to develop it/host it, blah blah blah. And with all such processes, there's the off the wall exceptions to the process that are currently "easily" handled by humans that may be too complex to automate.

Still. Seems like craziness.