[iron]

that's a solid article there. sadly, so many problems are a basic result of global overpopulation. all these things worked mostly fine when there were less of us and when our technology was simpler (took longer to exploit things).

[cambajamba]

Define "local."

[contour5]

[Cyclopath]

[iron]

redline. guidebook. green trails. all one in the same. tell me again about T&R. or jade. or half the alpine lakes that used to be off the beaten path.

[Foist]

"Wilderness is for me, not for thee."

[iron]

[contour5]

[Schroder]

I disagree with several points that Phil Cibicki made. I don't think the intention of the Wilderness Act was to exclude people to the point where you wouldn't run into other people, though I think some land managers - particularly in NCNP - feel that way. I enjoy running into other people and chatting along the trail. The local-preference lottery is ridiculous, as Contour5 said. I spent a lot of time in the Enchantments in the late 60's and early 70's and it was not uncommon to have 100 climbers camped around Gnome Tarn. I believe the lottery numbers for the core area should be increased and I think that the impact wouldn't be noticed. As for the trashing around Colchuck, it must be a recent thing because I didn't notice the problem prior to 5 years ago when I was last up there. That's a problem with educating people and it's a problem everywhere. Complaining about parking and having to walk to the trailhead - if the parking lot is filled and you're looking for isolation, maybe it's not the place for you to go.

[Randito]

If you want solitude on barren granite polished slabs, head to the Beartooths. It's the Enchantments x 100. The Wind River Range , particularly the Cirque of the Towers offer outstanding beauty. Closer by the Birekenhead area of BC 1.5 hours N of Whistler offers polished granite slabs, pocket glaciers and amazing vistas and very little regulation. The Enchantments are popular for the same reasons as Snow Lake: 1) The scenery is superlative 2) Herd mentality. Eschewing reason 2 -- there are lots of opportunities for natural spendor that don't involve queuing up, quotas or crowds.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

I gotta say, if you are headed up Aasgard Pass, walking a half mile on the road before the trailhead is the least of your worries. An extra .5 mile of nearly flat ground when you have a 2000 ft. climb in a mile or less of horizontal ground is beyond insignificant. That is just a silly complaint. Plenty of trail heads get full and require a little bit of road walking to get your day started. As to the the larger issue, I don't know what should be done. There are a few areas that require permits and have a lottery system that you have to apply for well in advance of the actual dates of the trip. These all are getting exponentially greater demand for those limited permits. Wonderland Trail, MSH summit, Enchantments. These may all be feather in your cap trips, but it's not worth bothering with for me. I can still day hike in and out of the Enchantments or day hike sections of the Wonderland if I choose to. As some others have noted there are no shortage of great places to go that do not require long odds of winning a lottery in order to visit, that are just as good of destinations.

[Jake Robinson]

[schifferj]

[Cyclopath]

[Cyclopath]