I was planning on leaving my car at Whittney Portal and then taking some sort of public transportation to Happy Isles to begin my hike. I will have to do this on a Sunday. Has anyone done this? What public transportation did you take? Does in run on Sundays?
Thanks,
Bob
Bob
This is a tough route by public transport and the only way to do it in one day or on a Sunday is hitchhiking.
The public transport from Lone Pine to Mammoth is Inyo Mono Transit - see http://www.inyocounty.us/transit/transit.htm for timetables & fares. You can get to Mammoth on Monday to Friday with a long wait in Bishop or by a direct bus on Mon, Wed or Fri afternoons. There is then a daily bus from Mammoth to Yosemite leaving early in the morning. Check www.yarts.com for this - usually weekends only when Hwy 120 opens then daily from July.
Good luck!
Phil B
I have been struggling with this problem also. Here is what I think I am going to do: Drive to Mammoth, park the car and spend the night at a public campground. Take YARTS to Yosemite Valley, get permit, spend the night and leave the following day. Upon exiting at Whitney Portal, hitch a ride to Lone Pine. Spend the night, clean up and take CREST to Mammoth and my car.
I would rather leave my vehicle at WP, but I’m not comfortable hitchhiking and trying to coordinate the public transportation is a bigger problem.
idahomtman
My experience is that hitching a ride from Whitney Portal or Horseshoe Meadow into Lone Pine is easy and problem free. Lots of opportunities - and most WP / Horseshoe visitors are aware of backpackers lack of their own ride. Same for Onion Valley into Independence.
booger
(started a new thread by accident, proper posting here)
I’m leaning toward parking my car at Whitney Portal and hitching to Happy Isles with a sign “Backpacker to Yosemite $50” as suggested on another forum.
Bob
Bob if you are still thinking about transportation options- I think if you do a sign like that you might get the wrong attention from random people driving by. I had no problem hitching from Whitney portal back to Tuolumne Meadows on my JMT hike a few years ago, in fact, I met a lot of interesting people. I did it in like 5 rides. Started in the afternoon (after summiting Whitney and eating burgers drinking a few beers at Whitney portal) while I was eating someone started asking me questions about the JMT hike and offered me a ride to Lone Pine. From Lone Pine it took 30 min. to get a ride, then they were all pretty quick after that. I got to Tioga pass at dark so I ended up camping on the side of the road and hitched the last few miles to TM in the morning, if you start a bit earlier in the day you can do it pretty quick. Im going to do the same thing this year for JMT.
Laundromat