[pct-l] Travel conundrum: Los Angeles to Mammoth Lake

[Halfmile]

markv,

If you have to go through LA, I think you have spotted the only
options...either hitching up from Ridgecrest/Mojave or a 2-day
Amtrak/YARTS ride up and through Yosemite over to Mammoth Lake.

If you can change your flights to either Fresno, Bakersfield or San
Francisco it would probably be a shorter and faster Amtrak trip for
you and an easier shot at either Tuolumne or Mammoth, but more
difficult if you only make it to Independence.

If you only made it to  the Independence/Kearsarge Pass area, you
could exit the PCT west down Bubbs Creek (a couple of miles S of the
Kearsarge Pass Trail) to Kings Canyon National Park, instead of
Independence. Since you have a ride meeting you, this would be an easy
way to get to Fresno. Returning to the PCT via Kings Canyon would be
more difficult with limited public transportation options and a bit
more of a climb.

If you didn't mind doing a little mini-flip you could return to the
trail at Tuolumne (with YARTS bus service), even if you exited at
Kings Canyon, and hike SoBo to Independence. Then either hitch or bus
up to Mammoth Lake and resume Nobo.

-Halfmile


On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 2:14 AM, mark v <allemande6 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>  Good PCT-Lers, Here's a doozy:
>
>  Assuming my feet are still taking me northbound in
>  mid-June, i have to get off the trail for one week to
>  fly east. I'm guessing i'll be at about Mammoth Lake.
>  Maybe Independence, maybe Tuolumne, but i'm aiming at
>  Mammoth as my best guess.  Getting off the trail i
>  have no problem, since Emma is meeting me with a car,
>  and we've made flights from Los Angeles.  But for the
>  way back, ugh.
>
>  I've looked up the bus and rail schedules.  I arrive
>  back in LA on a Friday at 10am.  From there, i can
>  take a Metrolink train to Lancaster, switch to a Kern
>  bus to Mojave and one to Ridgecrest.  But that's my
>  dead-end.  I arrive too late in the day to catch a
>  CREST bus north from Ridgecrest, and guess what...the
>  bus only runs on weekdays.  So that leaves me very
>  stuck.
>
>  Is there some way to get from LA to Mammoth that i'm
>  overlooking?  Some way that doesn't take more than 1
>  day?  I guess i could take the train to Merced, and
>  take Yosemite busses all the way across the next day,
>  but that's a 2 day circuitous way to get back to the
>  trail.  And we're not even figuring in the difficulty
>  of shuttling or hitching to the trailhead from town.
>
>  Any ideas would be welcomed!
>
>  markv
>
>
>
>
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