Official Baxter Park 2016 AT hiker registation announcement

[Mags]

...before entering park.

Details here

http://blog.hyperlitemountaingear.co...=3816_aab917b9

[George]

so looks like the main difference would be a card instead of just registering at the kiosk and the trail runner radioing in the info - potentiality being cutoff would discourage the trend to summit on weekends

[peakbagger]

I would suggest going directly to the source, the BSP website rather than a second hand account. When I look at the BSP site I don't see anything posted.

[George]

what fun is that?
WB is all about inter web speculation - facts are mere fog to cast aside

[George]

I think BSP actually comes here for input before finalizing policy

[Offshore]

I would suggest going directly to the source, the BSP website rather than a second hand account. When I look at the BSP site I don't see anything posted.

It does seen odd that the only mention (at least for now) seems to be on an equipment manufacturer's website blog post - maybe Hyperlite knows something that BSP doesn't. I do like the suggestions at the end of the blog post. They seem to be very Law and Order (i.e., ripped from the headlines!).

[squeezebox]

Any chance this thread will hit 1,000 posts??????

[Rain Man]

Would have been easy and perhaps more accurate for Hyperlite to put a question mark at the end of that headline?

[Dogwood]

what fun is that?
WB is all about inter web speculation - facts are mere fog to cast aside

LOL. That was nicely done article by HMG. I've been enjoying reading their articles. Some good writing. That 600 miler under the rim GC wanderlust hike has me interested.

[Tipi Walter]

I hope to Odin himself that this permit is also required for Dayhikers.

[dudeijuststarted]

BSP should do as they see fit. I for one will respect it.

[egilbe]

I hope to Odin himself that this permit is also required for Dayhikers.

Dayhikers already pay a fee to enter the park and to have a Day Use parking Permit. Through hikers only have to obey the rules. They aren't that onerous.

This effectively treats through hikers like every other person who enters the park. They will no longer get special consideration.

[Another Kevin]

Dayhikers already pay a fee to enter the park and to have a Day Use parking Permit. Through hikers only have to obey the rules. They aren't that onerous.

This effectively treats through hikers like every other person who enters the park. They will no longer get special consideration.

It still gives them the special consideration that there are likely to be at least a certain number of slots set aside, rather than having to make reservation for a date certain in Abol Bridge before someone starts at Springer. The day trippers' reservations are only good for a specific date, fixed long in advance, which is obviously not feasible given the uncertainties of a thru-hike. (And if they want to enforce that sort of rule, they have a perfect right to do so. They'll just find themselves awash in requests to change date, no-shows, and gate-crashers. It's easier on them to make the concession to the reality that thru-hikes don't happen on that sort of fixed schedule.)

Do day hikers who enter on foot need to have a parking permit? Just curious.

One reason I ask is my experience closer to home. There are several New York state parks and campgrounds that require that cars pay a fee and show a permit, and have no charge to enter on foot (and are porous enough that it would be impossible to enforce such a charge). I've confused the temporary staff from time to time when they've asked for my permit, and I've answered, "I don't have one, I don't have a car here. I hiked from ... (some other place, outside the park, often a day or three away)" This has come up mostly when I've asked for the special day use permit that some of the campgrounds have, so that I could lawfully do things like take a shower at the campground bathhouse. These permits are usually a couple of bucks, much less than a car permit, to say nothing of a campsite.

The actual rangers and the permanent staff are familiar with the idea that people actually pass through the parks on foot. The temp who's working the gate may not ever have encountered such a thing. It's sometimes fun, in a perverse sort of way, to watch them try to process, "I don't have a car, and I'm not spending the night. I spent last night at Stephens Pond, and I'm hoping to make Blue Mountain, or at least Salmon River, by nightfall. I just want to shower and have lunch here at the campground before I hike on." The look of confusion and the, "wait, you sleep in the woods?" are priceless.

[egilbe]

Hikers entering on foot don't need a permit, but they have to exit the park at night, or pay for a campsite, if one is available. It's next to impossible to enter the park, summit Katahdin and exit in one day, while hiking.

[Dogwood]

... It's next to impossible to enter the park, summit Katahdin and exit in one day, while hiking.

Call me Mr. Impossible. Also went down Knifes Edge to Helon Taylor to Roaring Brook CG and hitched back to Katahdin Stream CG. It was a LOONG day not finishing back at KS CG until after dark but I ate it up being in primo LD hiker condition.

Mt Katahdin really is one of the premier summits on the east coast. It would be a downright damn shame for the AT not to go there. BSP is a GREAT place entirely worthy of being protected as Percival Baxter had the foresight to arrange.

[Another Kevin]

Hikers entering on foot don't need a permit, but they have to exit the park at night, or pay for a campsite, if one is available. It's next to impossible to enter the park, summit Katahdin and exit in one day, while hiking.

OK, about as I thought, then. BSP does, of course, have other destinations than Katahdin.

[egilbe]

OK, about as I thought, then. BSP does, of course, have other destinations than Katahdin.

Oh yes, it's a beautiful area. Plenty of great hiking, other than Katahdin.

[One Half]

“When I started working with the park 18 years ago, there were a few hundred thru hikers who came over the course of the summer,” Bissell says. “Now those numbers are surpassing 2000! We now have to begin to consider what we think would be consistent, equitable and fair management for thru hikers and other user groups.”

if they are basing their plans on this inaccurate depiction of how many thru hikers they see each season, everyone will be in for a rude awakening. hopefully this is just poor reporting

[egilbe]

if they are basing their plans on this inaccurate depiction of how many thru hikers they see each season, everyone will be in for a rude awakening. hopefully this is just poor reporting

How so? Do you doubt they are getting 2000 hikers a year staying at the birches, claiming they've hike the HMW? That's all that's required to stay at the Birches.

[Another Kevin]

if they are basing their plans on this inaccurate depiction of how many thru hikers they see each season, everyone will be in for a rude awakening. hopefully this is just poor reporting

Their count of "thru hikers" is "anyone starting from farther away than Abol Bridge" - which really means, "those coming from the other side of the Hundred Mile Wilderness." Lots of people end section hikes at Katahdin.

My take on this:

If it's just "fill out a card at Abol Bridge," that should be no burden at all, and comparable to getting a High Peaks permit in the Adirondacks (where they have the forms in all the register boxes).

If it's "fill out a card at Abol Bridge, and maybe have to cool your heels in Abol Bridge Campground or Millinocket for a day or three," still very little impact in the long run.

What everyone's afraid of is that it will turn into, "sorry, we're out of slots for the rest of the year. We gave out the last slots for October 15 a month ago."

But it's nowhere near there yet.

And even if it got to that point, it's STILL a better deal than everyone else gets, where it's "reserve your slot on opening day, or at the very least months in advance, and that's the date you get - if indeed youmake your request in time to get a slot at all." I've heard that the weekend slots are all booked within hours when they start taking reservations for the season.

And I'd even be willing to live with that, if it left me feeling assured that my presence wasn't an intolerable burden.

Right now the message that keeps coming out is, "there are too many hikers entering BSP on foot from Abol Bridge, and BSP can simply not accommodate them all." That's an unfortunate message. The only thing that gives me a modicum of hope is that all the evidence offered in support of that claim relates to intolerable hiker behaviour, rather than to the simple impact of large numbers. That's a rather different problem, and admits of very different solutions. But I truly suspect that the numbers are indeed the problem, and the argument is being made clumsily.

In any case, I've not seen any reason to change my mind about staying away. That saddens me a little. I'd have liked to have seen the place. But if there truly isn't enough to go around, better I should let someone else have a go.