How Competitive are Cottonwood Lakes Permits on Weekends?

Trying to get permits for cottonwoods lake in september to do Mt. Langley. Tried today and they were snatched up in seconds.

Was that just cause we were shooting for labor day and a relatively large group (6) or will it be like this for all weekends in September?

I remember two years ago it was pretty easy but that was probably because it was October and I think a Thursday entry and less people.

Also as a sidenote, its super annoying when you refresh you have to answer that commercial group question, has anyone found a good way around this? By the time I re-input my dates and group size they were all gone.