High Sierra Topix

I am trying to plan a trip to Yosemite in the summer of 2010. I'd like to do some backcountry backpacking and try to avoid the crowds as much as possible. So, I'm steering clear of the YV rim and the High Sierra camps and opting for the John Muir Trail instead. Comments?

I'm looking at a 4-day trip from Tuolumne Meadows, through Lyell Canyon, the Ansel Adams Wilderness on the JMT and ending up at the Devil's Postpile or Red's Meadow.

If I stage my car at the end of the hike, I need to find a shuttle from the DP or RM back to Tuolumne to start the hike.

I called one shuttle service working out of Long Pine, but they wanted close to $500 for the ride. Seems crazy!

Is there a shuttle service in Bishop or a more reasonable public transit option?

Thanks for your help!

Kevin

I've never taken it myself but look into the Yarts shuttle busses, which travel between Mammoth and Yosemite

I did the same trip a few years ago. You can drive to Mammoth and spend the night there. Get up early the next day and park your car at the "mountain" (big elephant...er...mammoth) and take the Yarts shuttle to TM. Start your hike at TM and when you get to RM or DP, take the shuttle up to Mammoth and your car. It's a great trip with beautiful scenery.
Four days is a good plan. It'll give you time to take in the views. Make sure you get a permit for that section of the JMT.

Thanks copeg and The Other Tom. I will look up the Yarts schedule.

I had a nice experience backpacking Yellowstone's Buffalo Plateau Trail and am looking for more of the same on the JMT.

Coastalexplorer wrote: I called one shuttle service working out of Long Pine, but they wanted close to $500 for the ride. Seems crazy!

Is there a shuttle service in Bishop or a more reasonable public transit option?

not sure what you expect a personal shuttle to cost - a large van at $4+ per gallon of gas, driving most of the day to get to Reds, to get to Yosemite and back to Lone Pine - a driver with a real permit and license to dirve you, insured, paying taxes, is not going to work a full day for much less than that. I sure wouldn't.

But as pointed out - there are buses available. If you go in July, there's a daily bus from Mammoth all the way to Yosemite Valley. I used that bus from the valley to Tuolumne Meadows last summer, $12 for a nice drive through the park. If you go before July 1 or after Labor Day, the bus only runs on Saturday and Sunday.

Here's a good thread on the subject..........viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3531" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We bailed out of the first part of our JMT hike last summer and found public transport from Red's Meadow to be just great, if a little complicated. There's a free shuttle between the Mammoth Ski Area and Red's (also stops at Devil's Postpile, Agnew Meadow, and I think Minaret Summit). You can get between the ski area (a mountain-bike area during the summer) and the "Village" (a bunch of shops just outside of the town of Mammoth) on the free "bike bus," a bus that pulls a trailer full of bikes for the mountain bikers. Finally, there's a free "trolley" (a bus made to look like a trolley) that loops around through the town proper and also stops as the "Village." So between Red's Meadows and Mammoth, it's all free. Then, as Copeg and TOT pointed out, YARTS http://www.yarts.com/schedules.html has two buses per day between Mammoth (several stops) and the Valley (also several stops including June Lake Loop, Whoa Nelly Deli (Yes!), Tuolumne, and so on). The whole business is likely to take more than one day, but the Motel 6 in Mammoth is quite hospitable

The shuttle between Reds/Agnew and Mammoth Ski Resort is seven dollars per person. We rode it in August 2009. Did exactly the same hike - Tuolumne to Reds - and took the YARTS back to Tuolumne ($8, great bargain for a nice scenic ride with a bathroom stop at Mono Lake) after camping at an RV resort down the road from the Shilo Inn YARTS stop.

AlmostThere wrote:The shuttle between Reds/Agnew and Mammoth Ski Resort is seven dollars per person.

Hmmm... I'm pretty sure we didn't pay anything. Could it be that you only pay when starting in Mammoth, and when you pick up the shuttle in Red's they assume you've already paid? Gosh, I hope we don't owe somebody fourteen bucks!

You must have skated...the fee (either one way or round trip) is suppossed to be $7.00/pp...they list it as a "daily fee" but I suppose that the ticket stub down is also good for a trip back up too. They charged me that full price last year - only one way - and I was going up...asked why? - still $7.00.

From the top/Tavern, the hourly busses down to Mammoth Village are free...free connections meet from/at the center lift area in town...Yarts bus (last year departed Mammoth early AM) leaves from Shilo Inn - next to McDonalds and gets to Tuolumne around 11:00.