Proposed rate changes for campgrounds and backcountry permits

[DAW89446]

The service in Furnace is sometimes good enough to load a webpage,  but usually not.  Same goes for stovepipe.  It's probably dependent on the number of phones connecting to whatever tower is providing the signal at any given time.

I apologize, let me clarify: By "Furnace," I meant Furnace ghost town, in the hills northwest of Greenwater ghost town; not Furnace Creek. At that time, I don't think there was any cellular service in the main valley. There was service in Greenwater Valley, and also Panamint Valley at that time (I traveled weekly between my home in Big Pine and Trona via Panamint Valley until I left the job in Trona in 2004).

In 2002, I was using an analog flip phone. Phone based internet was around but still somewhat a novelty; I don't remember it being widely used then (the iPhone didn't come out until nearly two years later). I was still in the age of dial-up at home.

But my first night out, I was able to call my wife, retrieve my phone messages and respond to a call from my vehicle insurance company without dropping any of the calls. Checking my field notes, I see:

* Furnace townsite: It was after dark. I had two bars of signal. I made a call to my wife in Big Pine; I called my apartment in Trona to retrieve messages off the answering machine (I was working there, renting the apartment for use during my 4-day work week); one ten minute call to Victorville about my vehicle insurance.

* At my camp at the Greenwater/Ramsey townsite the following evening, I had two bars signal at my camp at the west side of the townsite, but at the auto club sign a half mile east one bar. I made no phone calls that evening.

After I made my phone calls, I went to charge my nearly dead video camera battery and realized I had forgotten to bring the charger...   It was the first day of a three day, two night trip with a dead camera battery. But hey! I could make phone calls from a ghost town!