What's happening?

The U.S. Forest Service wants to make sure everyone visiting our wilderness areas has opportunities for solitude. It all begins with research, and Friends of the Inyo is assisting. And for that, we need YOU! Help Friends of the Inyo conduct visitor data collection for the Forest Service in various designated Wildernesses on the Inyo National Forest. While we will be collecting data across the Inyo National Forest in 2025, for the end of 2024 we are focusing on just the South Sierra, Inyo Mountains, and Boundary Peak areas.

Hike specific trails in specific areas, recording how many other

people you encounter: that's it!

South Sierra

PCT, South Sierra: from the Kennedy Meadows wilderness boundary to Clover Meadow
PCT, South Sierra: from Clover Meadow to the Golden Trout wilderness boundary
Olancha Pass: from the wilderness boundary to the PCT

Inyo Mountains

Seephole Spring: off of Mazourka Canyon Road, from the wilderness boundary to the end of the trail.
Tamarack Canyon: off of Mazourka Canyon Road, from the wilderness boundary to the end of the trail.

Boundary Peak

Boundary Peak Route: the user created trail from Queen Canyon to the summit of Boundary Peak.
Trail Canyon: from the wilderness boundary to the end of the system trail.

How do I do It?

Are you excited about helping out?! Contact Friends of the Inyo’s Stewardship Director, Lindsay Butcher, at Lindsay@friendsoftheinyo.org. She will be happy to answer any questions and help you get started!

Below is the monitoring protocol to follow, so you get an idea of what is involved.

At the beginning of each monitoring session, record initial information at the top of the form including:

The monitoring area name
The observer’s name
The date
The time when data collection started
Whether data are being collected on a weekday, weekend, or holiday
Tally the number of people encountered within the monitoring area. Count all people seen or heard, no matter how close or far you are from them. If you hike past a camping group, include the number of people you see as traveling encounters (this includes administrative or outfitted camps – the idea is to document the impacts to visitors’ experiences).
- If you can’t get an exact count of the number of people, make your best estimate.
- If you see the same group more than once during a monitoring session, record the number of people as another (new) encounter if more than 15 minutes have passed since the first time you saw the group.

At the end of the monitoring session, fill out the final information on the form:

Record the time when data collection for this monitoring session stopped
Calculate the total amount of time during which data were collected
Record the total number of people encountered

Then you would simply submit recorded trail data to Lindsay by using the email address above and including “Solitude Monitoring ’24” in the the subject line. That’s it!

We hope you will help us during your meanderings of discovery in any of these areas anytime between now and the end of November. For the sake of Wilderness…and Solitude!