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[pct-l] Lone Pine - worth a stop?



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Lone Pine is one of my favorite places.  I have been there many many times
over the years.  It has far better supplies than Independence or Big Pine.
The best way to get there is out over Trail Pass or Cottonwood Pass to
Horseshoe Meadow.  There are campgrounds and a pack station there so getting
a ride down to Lone Pine is not too onerous.  Trail Pass is 42 miles north of
Kennedy Meadows store... Cottonwood Pass is 5.4 miles further north.  Either
pass is only a couple of miles from the same roadhead.  This leaves a doable
131.6 miles to Mono Creek and VVR.  While going out over Kearsarge Pass cuts
the long leg down to 87.2 miles to VVR, it adds 18 miles round trip ( instead
of 4.5) to a potentially less easy hitch from Kearsarge.

 If you plan to climb Whitney.... and go out and back over Trail Crest....
that's a tougher proposition.  That makes it 63.5 miles from KM, but a heck
of a climb over and out and back.  From Whitney Portal is it more than a
vertical mile.  My suggestion is to go out over Cottonwood Pass, and come
back in over Trail Crest.  This presents the dilemma of skipping the little
bit more than 16 miles from Cottonwood to Crabtree.  To go out and back over
Cottonwood AND do Whitney would require at least a day's extra food in
addition to whatever it takes you to do the 131 to VVR.  Weighty decisions.

No Way