Getting out of Whitney Portal

[Caveman of Ohio]

After doing a little research I'm having no luck finding a way out of Whitney Portal . I see my nearest towns for bus service are Bakersfield or Merced Ca. They are some good distance from the trail and may have trouble finding a ride. How is hitchhiking in California compared here in the east? Are there any other options of getting public transit out of that area?

[taildragger]

http://www.pcta.org/planning/before_trip/resources/transportation.asp

Shouldn't be too hard to get to lone pine after the trail.

[Sly]

It should be an easy hitch from the portal to Lone Pine, just ask anyone getting into their car. From there there's a bus, that go to from Ridgecrest to Reno.

[The Old Fhart]

I had no problem getting a ride from the trail head/store at Whitney Portal to Lone Pine-had to wait about 10 minutes.

It would be a good idea to check the bus schedule from Lone Pine to Reno (http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/inyo/about/public-transport.shtml) because it doesn't run every day.

[MOWGLI]

Took me about 1 hour to get a hitch from Whitney Portal to Lone Pine. From there, we paid for a shuttle to Mojave, and took the Greyhound to LA from there.

This year, we're coming out at either Bishop Pass or Kearsage Pass. From there we'll take public transportation from either Bishop or Independence. Once we get to Mojave, we'll take the hound.

Checkout this link;

http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~rbell/JMTTransport.html.gz

[Sly]

This year, we're coming out at either Bishop Pass or Kearsage Pass.

I haven't been out Bishop Pass but the Kearsage Pass trail is awesome!

[fiddlehead]

I've hitched up and down that route 395 many times in the past. No problems as long as you can somehow make it known that you are a backpacker and not a homeless dude. (you know, clean up a bit and maybe even have a sign on tyvek)

We used to park our vehicle at either Tuolume or Whitney portal and hitch back to get it to do the JMT.

I remember a story of my hiking buddy who hurt his leg, bailed out on the trail and hitched to the van where he waited for me for a few days while i finished the trail (JMT) well, he ran the battery down in the van (parked at Whitney portal) and was faced in a way that he could not get a jump. Finally he said a guy in a wheelchair helped him push the truck around so that he got the jump he needed and was ok after about 4 days without any power in the van.

Lots of good memories in that area.

[Jim Adams]

Last year the public transit also ran south from Lone Pine to Lancaster which I think has an airport.

geek

[The Solemates]

we hitched two guys out to lone pine when we did whitney last year. not a big deal...only one way out, so you're bound to get a ride.