As of yesterday, this bold, red letter print appeared on the Park’s web site.  They are completely buried in requests to hike the Wonderland Trail.  I wish I lived closer to volunteer a few hours a day helping them process these requests!

Wilderness Permits & Reservations – April 21, 2014: SUMMERLAND AND INDIAN BAR ARE FULL FROM MID JULY TO LATE SEPTEMBER. As of today, we are still processing reservation requests. We received 2,000 during the March 15-31 time-frame. We have now reached the point where we are not able to successfully process the majority of requests for Wonderland Trail permits. Permits received after March 31 have much smaller odds of being fulfilled. If we are not able to book your trip we will send you a letter notifying you of this. Processing began April 1. Many camps are now full, especially between mid-July and late September. The option to a reservation is a first-come, first served permit. Requests received in March, April and May could take up to eight weeks to process because of the large number of applications. Each one is processed by hand with usually only 1-2 rangers assigned to this duty. It will be well into May/early June before this initial batch of reservation requests are completed. This means you may not get a reply from the park for some weeks, depending on when your request is processed. As the season goes on and the initial pile of requests are whittled down, the park is able to process and reply to reservation requests in 1-2 days.