Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Whitney Portal to Cottonwood trailhead

We are starting at Cottonwood on 8/18/08 and exiting at the Portal on 8/21 or 8/22/08 and only have one car. I was planning on driving the car from Horseshoe Meadows to the Portal early (6am) on the 18th and hitchhiking back to Cottonwood with the intention of getting going by noon. What do people think? Does this sound do-able or will it be dificult to hitch a ride all the way back to Horseshoe Meadow? Thank you.

We recently used the Mt. Whitney Shuttle Service to get from Whitney Portal to Horseshoe Meadows. The advantage is that it is a sure thing. The down side is that it comes with a cost. I found the cost to be reasonable, but YMMV.

http://www.mtwhitneyshuttle.com/

Thank you for the information. How do they operate? Is it necessary to have a reservation or just contact them when you exit from the Portal?

Call Bob at the phone number from the Web site. We made a reservation. He preferred to take us to our starting trailhead and have us leave our car at the finishing one. Which was fine with us. He met us at the park in Lone Pine and followed us to the Portal. At the Portal, three guys came up and asked for a ride to Lone Pine. He took them with us to Horseshoe Meadows, then headed down to town. He also offered to come back to the Portal after dropping us off at Horseshoe Meadows. So, he's flexible.

Thank you very much Alan.

Anybody have thoughts on the hitchhiking idea?

I was there in July. There isn't very much traffic on the Horseshoe Meadows Road. You may get lucky, or you may sit for a long time waiting for a ride. You may have to hitch to Lone Pine or to the Horseshoe Meadows intersection (which should be pretty easy), and then get a separate hitch to the trail heads at Horseshoe Meadows (which may be harder). Odds of finding one person that is going from the Portal to Horseshoe Meadows is probably not that high, but you never know.

Have you thought about going through the Miter Basin and over Discovery Pinnacle to reach Mt. Whitney?

If you take this route you will be able to leave from cottonwood lakes th and return to cottonwood lakes th with same time period. I will be taking this route in September. Day 1 cottonwood th to High Lake #5. Day 2 over New Army pass to sky blue lake. Day 3 summit whitney & back to skyblue lake. Day 4 skyblue lake to high lake. Day 5 only 6 miles back to the car and a 4 hour drive home. Cutting through miter basin is shorter, more secluded, and very beautiful, from what I hear. Here is a link to a post on Miter Basin
Miter Basin/Crabtree Pass

mrtbones

That is a great idea and I would love to do that trip, but I have people with me that would not be comfortable with this. Thank you for the input and I look forward to doing this route one of these years.