Are you just saying you could drive up that day (arriving before close) because you would have the guarantee of the same-day walk-in, rather than the gamble that it's always been until now?
Heck, I don't know; I'm just going off what I think Steve said.
If you were to drive up early enough before the permit office closes, that sort of defeats the idea of getting in a full 3-day weekend. That is, I'm 4 hrs away, which means I'd have to leave around noon. Now I'm at a 3.5-4 day weekend.
What I'm imagining is leaving work a bit early (4 pm), arriving by 8pm, grabbing a permit out of the night box and hiking up a few miles. The next day, you'd get a full day in (especially with a 5am start), which is killer for any of the big gain passes. The new system - as I understand it - eliminates wasting a lot of time waiting for the permit office to open.
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JMT/PCT/WZ Steve, are you saying that THs now have exit limitations? Example: I enter Kearsarge, but cannot exit Lyle canyon? Or, I enter Shepherd, but cannot exit Whitney? What about the S to N lake loop? This doesn't sound right - interested to find out how they're going to enforce.
