Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Gas Prices. How Many Trips Are U Planning?

The price of gas has recently been a factor for me considering a trip. I used to solo a lot, but these days I do more trips with a partner.

My round trip mileage from the bay area to Lone Pine is 684 miles.
My car gets 30MPG and I would need 22.8 gallons of fuel for the round trip. At an average price of $4.30 a gallon (regular) the trip costs $98.04

At $3.35 a gallon (a year ago) the same trip cost $76.
And back in the good old days of $1.60 fuel, the trip would cost $36.48 round trip!

Going to Shasta now costs $81 ($4.45gal) and last year that same trip cost $61 ($3.35gal).

At $5 a gallon it would cost $91 to go to Shasta round trip and Lone Pine would be $114 Round Trip. The price will keep creeping up so a hybrid car is in my future.

And more than likely, when I go, later in the summer, the price of gas will be higher yet, so having a good partner is now a factor. And on the plus side, having a partner makes the drive pass faster.

My chief concern has never been a burly truck to navigate to the trail head, but rather cruising range. I have found myself in some fairly nearby, to civilization, areas that don't have many gas stations such as the carrizo plain, death valley and much of central Alaska. I've driven small cars in the dead of winter up the dalton highway in AK, on some pretty wild yucatan roads after a hurricane and western canada hot springs dirt roads in a small car. As long as you drive slow enough and don't exceed your ground clearance, watch your tires, stay on the road, etc... you will get there and back.

Gas prices are a big factor now.. Im lucky that 95% of the time i ride my motorcycle everywhere.. But when i do drive my car its a 1981 VW camper and i use super in it... Thats already 4.50 here that i found the cheapest.. Most places are 4.80 and up.. What most people think of is just the price of gas.. Did you notice how the price of food went up.. We end up paying more for everything as the price of gas going up.. But to stay sane at everyday we do need to get away what ever the price is.. Doctors are so much more expansive..

sasha

Gas prices are going up?It only cost me $101.00 to fill my truck on Saturday.I still make it up to the Sierra atleast once every 4-6 weeks.It used to be twice a month but since the house burned down,rebuilding the new one,getting over chemo and work I've been alittle busy.I'll be heading up on the 13th for 9 days and expect to see some pretty pricey gas but not worried about the cost or how many tanks I need.Gas was over $3 bucks a gallon when I bought it 3 years ago,been hearing rumors of $4 a gallon gas for awhile,but on those cold Sierra mornings nothing beats my seat heater!
Thor

Here is an interesting take on gas prices from another board commenting on $5.15 gas in Death Valley:

5.15 is a bargain out there. Still cheaper than a case of bottled water packaged in plastic, which is made from oil and headed for the landfill. Still cheaper than beer which is made from grain and water. Still cheaper than the Hydrogenated fat pill drink that people get in the Starbucks drive thru, with the Engine running on a 12 passenger Suburban with no passengers. As long as there are lazy fuel pigs we are going to pay. The Diesel rig that delivers the fuel has also got his fuel bill tripled in the last year.

Ain't it the truth. I've exchenged my good old GMC pick-em-up truck for a Prius. The savings in gas not only makes the payment, but puts a little extra in the bank every month.

Fall through spring we're in Josh twice a month, couldn't afford to do that without the Prius.

On topic, my trips semi planned have been canceled easier this summer due to several factors. And though the cost of any one trip increased due to fuel is a minor factor, my permit was pulled by management because of a 'sense' of it being too expensive. I'll be doing more things near home this Summer and await Fall. Maybe I'll drive part way and hike the rest.

joe

People talk about how to save gas, by buying smaller cars, filled tires, etc, but the biggest gas squanderer of all is the HEAVY FOOT!

Driving to Reno it's mostly open highway from where I live with a couple of towns and signals. When I see the yellow light coming on a 1/2 mile away, my foot instantly comes off the gas pedal and I coast. Cars behind me take this as an utter insult and blow past me, speeding all the way up to that red light.

They are stopped when the light turns green and must start from a dead stop and that uses a ton more gas than my car which is coasting and probably in 3rd gear and barely needs to accelerate back to top speed. I also see them pedal to the metal from a dead stop up a steep hill, just to come to another red light. Jack rabbit stop/starts are the worst.

My Subaru's gas needle barely moves when I drive it 55-58 mph. When I'm forced to go 62-68 mph, the needle drops rapidly. I'm lucky I can go the Sierra on the weekdays when there's less traffic and I can get in the right lane and go 55-58 mph. However what I save is erased on the 2-lane stretch of 395 between Big Pine and Lone Pine. Thankfully there's 4-lane construction going on in that area now.

If you see a white Forester not going the speed limit, it's probably me. I'm not trying to bug you, I'm saving gas. Going up Conway summit and the 8 mile hill out of Bishop, I literally drive 35 mph. What's the hurry? And slow lets you see the incredible scenery!

The more you buy,the more you fund the Saudis. Have you seen the monster hotels going up in Dubai? Have you seen the Mazda Miata they built made of solid silver? Have you seen the Aspen ski resort and ski run (a man-made mountainside!) in a building they built? We're struggling and they don't know what to do with ALL that money! Drive slower, spend less is my motto.

I have an epic scheduled for June - going to the highpoint in AZ, CO, KS, OK and NM in one week. It's a lot of driving, 2700 miles, but I've been planning it for almost a year. We'll just be a little cheaper on the other things like food. Certainly no hotels along the way, just sleep in the Ranger.

Haven't had a chance to read all the above posts so this may have already been mentioned. For long road trips HYPERMILING is the way to go. Even with the continual rising gas prices, I'm not ready to give up a good road trip!

MC

In talking about fuel economy, this is the part I dislike the most:
I have to admit that I like getting to my destination in a hurry and was very happy to see the old 1970s vintage 55 mph speed limit abolished. But the fact is that there are huge energy savings in slowing down. So, I am trying to get used to the idea. It is dangerous on LA freeways, though, since they seem to have two speeds: 80 and 5.

Of course, the best way to slow down is to take up Richard P's good old Sea to Summit idea -- bicycle!

Those are all great suggestions for increasing gas mileage. I would also suggest removing all unnecessary weight from your car.
That affects your gas mileage too. Another item not mentioned (probably because people don't normally drive on washboard dirt roads) is to make sure your car is aligned. I found that this gave me about 2-3 extra mpg.

I like to push the limits of gas mileage and on two occasions I stressed my wife out by pushing the envelope and letting the gas needle get too low to the big E on the way out of the northern end of Death Valley. She kept telling me she did not want to push the car to anywhere with civilization so I ended up reducing my speed, coasting on down hills (sometimes with the engine off), turning off the AC and managing my speed by using the cruise control.

We made it to a gas station with just the reserve gallon of gas to spare. At 65mph, we would not have made it, but at 55mph, we had gas left in the tank. Now she makes me carry a small gas can, just in case.

Sounds like a Seinfeld episode (the one with Kramer and the car salesman)!

MC

Just get a job that has you driving less than 6 miles one way.

And once you do that, you can ride a bicycle to work. (That's what I try to do as often as possible, but not as often as I should.)

Edit: responding to the question about gas mileage improvement devices below: They are a waste of money. If they really worked, the car manufacturers would already be installing them.

Does anyone have any experience with these gas mileage improvement devices? They promise UP TO 30% improvement in MPG.

http://www.turbonator.com/index.html?id=adWordsMileage

Cost is about $35

If this really works, I could save a lot of money on gas or get better range to explore and not worry abut gas. But then most of these things are probably a scam or car makers would put them in at the factory. I find it hard to believe that you can improve horsepower and gas mileage at the same time. You need more gas for more horsepower...unless this thing does what it promises and that is to increase efficiency of burning the fuel to extract all the energy.

Any thought?

That is kind of what I thought. Car manufacturers would put them in to improve fleet mpg and meet gov standards for fleet mpg for a car maker.

I guess there is not solution but to pay the price for the gas.

I know gas prices are getting out of hand and they're going up daily with no relief in sight.And there are already "devices"out there with more on the way that say they improve mileage.And so many people are panicking by trading in their gas hog for a small car or a hybrid.You'll get screwed on your trade in and pay a premium price for your economy car.Now isn't the time to buy one unless you are just convinced to do so.
If what you drive is running good and you're for the most part happy with it,keep it.Make sure it's in good running order,be sure your tires have the proper air pressure,just like when you ride a bike with low tires,you work harder,and drive a little slower on the highway.My truck averages 14-15 on the highway when I'm going at a good clip and 17-19 when I go 65-70.That's just my opinion,for what it's worth.Plus,I only work 3 miles from home so I've been riding my bike lately.

Thor

You have a good point about trading in your car. I have a friend who has a V8 jeep and she can not give it away.

We bought our more fuel efficient cars last year in anticipation of the dollar devaluation and gas price increases.

Some of the people at work used their inflated home equity loans to buy huge cars like the navigator or suburban and they are really feeling the squeeze since those gas tanks are 22.5 gallons.

My car has only a 15 gallon tank and my fill up cost went from $35 to $55 in one year.

Someone at work is buying one of those vortex generator devices for their big V8 truck so I am curious to see how they do with them installed. I'll post again once I find out what his results are. He just ordered it today and I'm going to help him install it so I can see what this thing is and does.

AlanK,

You and others on this board might be interested in reading an article on the origin of oil. According to this article, oil isn't a fossil fuel. It's a natural product the earth generates.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=45838


krseeger

The theory that oil has an abiotic origin is, to say the least, highly controversial and not widely accepted. I am not a geologist and am happy to let the experts sort it out. However, the analysis used by Hubbert and others makes no assumption about the origin of oil. One tracks the rate of discovery and sees that it peaked in the late 1960s. That is what we have to work with, whatever the origin. The rate of production is assumed to be an echo of the rate of discovery curve, with a delay of about 40 years. That analysis worked for US oil and for oil and other resources elsewhere. It is pretty compelling.

If there is a huge, untapped supply of abiotic oil out there, someone needs to go out and discover it. There is no evidence that it's out there. Meanwhile, we are stuck working with what we actually know about. And the rate of new discovery has been going down for decades.

The bright side is that exhausting the supply of fossil fuel is probably the only thing that will get people to limit CO2 emissions. Natural gas discoveries peaked as well, although more recently than oil. But we still have the potential to make things toasty by burning coal.