[Schroder]

I knew this was coming and it appears all the parks are announcing it today. NCNP Backcountry permits will be by lottery in March Reservations begin in March 2022 and will be processed through the North Cascades Backcountry Permits site on Recreation.gov

[zimmertr]

More money in the bank for Booz Allen

[hbb]

Good, this will be way better than standing around for hours in Marblemount. I'll gladly pay some private company a few dollars for the privilege of making an online reservation. Olympic made the same move, and between that and COVID protocols, getting a permit is as easy as making a few mouse clicks. No more lining up at the WIC at 7:30 a.m. to get ahead of the first rush of folks coming off the 6:05 Bainbridge ferry.

[HikingBex]

So does this mean that we won't enter the lottery for an itinerary this year, we'll enter for a timeslot and then during that timeslot we can choose from whatever's still available? Ok I actually clicked on the link and read the details so I understand it more now... Any idea how many people are going to be in each timeslot? I.e. if I get a timeslot do I have a pretty good chance of getting the site I want? Last year I remember NCNP sent out an email around the time they were emailing people if they'd gotten permits or not to be patient because they were still sorting through all the applications, which made me think the rangers were doing it by hand It definitely seems like that system had room for improvement.

[thunderhead]

Regardless about how you feel about overcrowding and reservations in general, this is definitely going to be a step up from the current disaster of reservation system at NCNP.

[Foist]

Looks like Mt. Rainier too.

[neek]

[zimmertr]

[Foist]

That's a fair point. But the national forests and parks will not be completely privatized (nor should they be) so we will be stuck with waste and inefficiency either way. But at least with everything centralized with one private system (recreation.gov), it will be a simpler, more consistent and generally easier and better experience for the users (even if it's WAY more expensive than it should be for taxpayers because of the lack of competition or accountability). Recreation.gov initially took a huge dip in quality and features when it was bought by Booz Allen (as was discussed in another thread I started to complain about it), but it seems to have vastly improved since then.

[neek]

[zimmertr]

I might be crazy but I don't see why a new joint team of salaried software engineers couldn't be hired to build and maintain a system like this under the direct jurisdiction of the NPS, USFS, BLM, etc. Payscale.com says the median annual compensation for a software engineer in the United States is $88,297. (Sidebar, why do they apply the word "average" to the median instead of the mean?) A team of 20 software engineers would then work full time, have a longterm stake in the success of the project, and bill $1.8MM annually. Rather than a 10 year commitment conducted by an organization with a revolving door of engineers simultaneously working multiple projects. And it could be funded for 100 years at the price Booze is charging for 10. (Disregarding changing salaries/inflation/whatever). Is spending all of this extra money for an inferior product worth having a "small government"?

[texasbb]

[Cyclopath]

[BeardoMcGrath]

[fourteen410]

I'm all for moving things to an online reservation system. But I do have some reservations, so to speak, about how susceptible Recreation.gov is to tech savvy folks who know how to game the system. There has been suspicion in the past about bots snatching up highly sought after permits. Hopefully this is something that has been addressed.