by Phil » Mon Jun 20, 2016 9:09 am
Balzaccom:
I hear what you're saying, and I agree, but this is Tuolumne Meadows we're talking about here. Probably second only to LYV for permit checks and violations.
Yes, you haven't left the trail system, and you're on the same side of the road, camping where you were legally supposed to the first night, but you are now going in the opposite direction, at a different entry trailhead. If he backtracks and skirts Tuolumne Meadows, and he gets stopped and permitted, it would raise eyebrows. In another scenario: If I couldn't get a permit for Lyell Canyon, and that was what I wanted to do, but Cathedral Lakes was what was available, what would be stopping me from simply deciding that I didn't like what I got and just because I happened to able to be able to go a couple miles out of my way in order to do it, I would? I'm legal, technically, because I'm still on the dirt of the trail system, but I had every intention of cheating the system. I could even go so far as to blow my permitted entry date off by a day, stay at the backpacker's camp (probably not even having anyone check my permit that night, and nobody in communication with the wilderness ranger at all), claim I did indeed stay the first night up Lyell, and then go where I wanted to. It's still the JMT, but it's the non-wilderness proximity issue that would at least raise a few flags for a ranger. You know from being here longer than I have that we get plenty of people that either misconstrue the entry rules, or want a workaround to what they wanted to do, but couldn't. I would say, "Hey, wait a minute, what's the deal with your permit? What happened? Why does your permit say Lyell Canyon and you're now 100 yards away from Tioga Rd at Cathedral Lakes going in the opposite direction?" Satisfied, I let you go on your way. Unsatisfied, I turn you around and get to the bottom of it, or leave you to sort it out with the permitting office. That's all I was saying. You might be legal, have every good intention of staying within regulations, and be allowed to proceed when it's all sorted out, but you're also going to have to do some serious explaining to make that happen. For every x number of people doing it right, there are y number of people who aren't, and that's why they check permits. Their job is to figure out if you're an x or a y.