A few years back we had permits to hike the Seven Lakes Basin in the Olympics over a 4-day Labor Day weekend but a nasty weather system made that impossible. The only good weather within driving distance was in the Three Sisters Wilderness to the south of us. The Obsidian Falls loop requires permits - it's a limited use area. We tried to snag some at the local ranger station but of course it was fall up.

I asked the ranger what they did if someday didn't show to claim their permit. They didn't do anything. The spot went unused! They kept track of the permits on a sheet of paper. Pretty sophisticated.

Anyway, we did the loop anyway, saw virtually no people at all (it would appear that there were no-shows), never saw a ranger either. We wnt back last year with permits and in fact did run into a ranger and chatted for a while. She was very friendly but, yeah, she did want to see those permits.

The Sisters is very open and there are many places to camp well off trail, and even hike well off trail. It wouldn't be too difficult to avoid the enforcers, but there are other spots where the trail is really the best way of getting from A to B. And the rangers know where those are.