Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Bear Canisters, Bugs, & WPS Burgers

I am hiking from Onion Valley to Portal in two weeks. I have a couple of questions concerning the hike.

- Are the mosquitos bad on the JMT this time of year?
- Where can I buy a reasonably priced bear canister? The cheapest I have found so far is around $80.00.
-How late is the WPS kitchen open on september 16th?

Thanks!

Store is open 8-8 in September, which means the kitchen closes down at 7pm.

Garcia canisters are $53 (with tax) at the Whitney Portal store.

Shouldn't be mosquitos in Sept. That's when we do our long trips.

you can also rent either Garcia or Bearikade (much lighter) canisters. Bearikades are available online: http://wild-ideas.net/index2.html and I believe the ranger stations have Garcias. The Portal store may have them as well.

The last grill order at WPS is 15 minutes before the grill shuts down and that is one hour before the store closes. You have to be down by 6:45 PM if the store closes at 8 PM.

Fred

does anyone know how much it costs to rent a bear container at WPS?
thanks.

Last year it was $2 per day.

thanks CaT,
just seemed a shame to have to buy one just to end up bringing back to chi-town at the end of the weekend!!!!

Store hours posted on the WPS site are out of date. Due to the fact that Doug and family are working on a new place in Lone Pine, they are closing the store a bit earlier this year. I was there last weekend and the kitchen closed at 6:30.