Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Flying in from the East

What if you're looking for public transportation? In particular BACK to Reno from Lone Pine? When my son and I finished the JMT last year we bused from LP to China Lake (what's the name of the town?), rented a car, and drove to LA for the flight home to Maryland (hi, Jim R!), but next year I want to take less time and fly round trip to Reno. It's quick and easy to get to Yosemite from Reno, but last I looked, it absolutely required at least one overnight to do public transportation from Lone Pine to Reno. Anybody have more recent information?

Here is a url for a local bus service that runs up 395, I beleive it confirms you would need one overnight to complete the entire trip from LP to Reno.

Does anyone care to comment on the ability to hitch on 395?

Sorry, I hit add too quickly.

http://www.countyofinyo.org/transit/CRESTpage.htm

Yes, it was CREST that I was thinking about. Looks like one has to spend the night in Bishop. There's a regular Inyo County bus from Lone Pine to Bishop, I think, but it doesn't really link up with the northbound CREST any better, as I recall. Hitchiking doesn't really appeal to me -- I spent what seemed like hours last year trying to get out of Whitney Portal, which is notoriously "easy" hitchiking!

Jim R.: We're neighbors! I'm in St. Mary's County, near St. Mary's College.

I would have to agree with HalfDomeHiker that Reno is the way to go.

This drive gets more dramatic as you head south amd it really allows you to appreciate the massiveness of the range in a State of nearly 36+ million people. The drama for me is the high snowy peaks against a desert valley. The Owens Valley is supposably the longest deepest valley in the world. The Walker river area (just south of Walker) sustained a massive flood back in 1997.

Hundreds of movies/car commercials are (have been) filmed against the backdrop of these mountains. They are truely spectacular both geologically and spriritually. For me thay are simply the best (dry, warm, thunder, wildlife, recreation, local communities, history, etc.)