Coyote Buttes in May

[Aldaron]

Bots that pay $5 per application?

The machines have money now?!?!

 

[Aldaron]

I took a sick day today because I'm all dizzy...ignore my weirdness...

 

[Nick]

It's the bitcoins!!! The machines are taking over the world with them!

 

[Nick]

It's January 31st, time to see how many people are vying for those 310 advance permits to see the Wave in May 2014.

As of 4:30 PM, 1/31/14:


That's a total of 9,749 applications and 31,009 people.

Roughly a 0.9% chance of winning.

 

[Nanda]

My dates have 300 requests or below, slightly better odds.

 

[Nanda]

As expected, didn't get it. Neither did my friends. Time to make some canoeing plans.

 

[Nick]

Bummer.

One more crazy thought about the lottery... that's a whole lot of money!

620 awarded permits in May = $3,100
9,749 applications = $48,745
TOTAL HAUL FOR MAY = $51,845+

I suppose those application counts could include the second and third choices though, in which case that $48k number would be 1/3 the amount, but that's still $16,250 + $3,100 = $19,350.

This thing really is turning into the lottery. They should just call it PowerWave™ and start awarding cash prizes with each winning permit!

 

[Aldaron]

For a day trip location?

 

[Dave]

As I say, it's Utah's legal lottery.

The sad thing is I bet the permit lottery revenue doesn't stay in the region.

 

[Riggs]

Looks like a cool spot, always have enjoyed the photos. I hate permits. I love Montana. As long as we don't do the Smith River (and have done that a couple times) or Nat'l Parks, you can go anywhere you want, anytime you want, camp anywhere you want. The freedom, that's half the allure of backcountry isn't it.

 

[John Fowler]

I was at the Kanab field office on Monday, Feb. 3, to apply for a walk-in permit to CBNorth. There were 26 applicants for the 10 slots, and I didn't win. They said that the previous Friday, when they drew for tickets for Sat., Sun., and Mon., there were 60 applicants on hand. I went back on Wed. Feb. 5. There were 16 applicants, and my number was the first one out of the basket. Having been to the Wave a couple of times already, I decided to come up from the south (Cottonwood Cove, where I already had a ticket), and walk up to Toprock from there. I wanted to explore Toprock; if I saw the Wave, fine; if I didn't, that would be OK. When I got to the top of Toprock, it was not as easy to get around as I had assumed. So I wandered around for a couple of hours and returned to my truck, calling it a day. I missed the Wave, the big sand pile, and Melody Arch, which I really wanted to see, mostly because of poor planning. I should've waypointed them in my Garmin beforehand. But it was a nice hike and I'm glad I did it.