Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Whitney Portal / Lower Main Trail / NF - 04.02.206

The plan was another trip up Horseshoe Meadow Road, but the side of the gate was blocked (LOL) with a couple of sandbags...I got the message...

Reversed course and headed up to the Portal...thought the road was going to be closed at the Rockfall Gate, but no, you can drive all the way up to the gate at the Portal...

I ate lunch at one of the picnic tables that the Thompsons leave out all year...was I the first for '26???

And then headed up the Old Trail. There was one small patch of snow off to the side of the trail...that was it...

I talked to a few hikers on the Main Trail...the consensus is that you'll be on snow if you want to make it up to Lone Pine Lake, or beyond...

I only went to the JM Wilderness sign...turned to the North Fork...the stream looks like it's October...

On the NF Trail, you're going to have to deal with snow from the 1st stream crossing...I turned and headed up the North Side Way for a short distance before stopping...read some mail...tried selling our RC Townhome...then headed down...

Here are some photos:


I could have ridden around it.



The Trailhead.



The Pond and Store.



The Main Trail at the Wilderness boundary.



The North Fork at the 1st stream crossing.



Why is the gate locked...there was one small tree branch on the ground around the Portal...:-)


I do have a new camera setup, but forgot it...Apple wants nearly $800 to clean the dust off my iPhone camera sensor and the photos suck because of it...

Looks like a perfect July day...

Bears…would you expect them to be out in the Portal at this point? Food in cars a bad idea? What about bears up North Fork, Boy Scout lakes?

I don't know if the bears are roaming the Portal, but at this time of year, there is no excuse not to use the Bear Boxes...they'll be mostly empty because of the limited number of people up there right now...

I've seen evidence of bears up the NF, so use a canister, or at least hang your food...if the Marmots are out, they're more of a threat to ruin your trip than bears...

The first of the season sets the pattern for the entire summer if bears get food they will not leave and hit the open bear boxes and cars, packs left out ,hang around the bathrooms and trail head plus hit the campground every day , the pond ,picnic area the north fork and meysan canyon where they have dens.

Controlling the human food source in the area means the bears may search out natural food and may travel down canyon to get food : Lone Pine Campground, Alabama Hills and into town . Recall if a bear gets food it will return to that area many times checking for food ,that's the problem with a rewarded bear this time of the year.

This feels like everything is a month ahead of schedule right now. It feels like Memorial Day weekend could almost offer a clear dirt path up at least to Trail Camp if this pattern continues.

Doug I saw your post about ticks and rattlesnakes, whereabouts is this being reported?

Happy Easter! Is there anywhere to buy or rent a bear canister in Lone Pine?

Rattlers can start low in the area and some years in Lone Pine campground ,we could see them higher but not often, we see a random not rattles in the Portal at times .

Tick reports from people coming out of the north fork and Portal again not common but we have had ticks before.
Bear can rentals Hostel and store $2 00 a day only charge the night you stay on the mountain. Not the day you rent it or tjhe day you return it. 2 nights on the mountain is $4 00
For sure a month early,we see this trend the last few years on the heavy snow years still not like 40 years ago we would have snow/ice around the store to late June