Catamount wrote:Also remember (if you plan on an overnight start) that you still have to figure in actually securing your permit from the Eastern Sierra InterAgency Visitor Center, which closes at 5:00 PM I believe (and IIRC, for day permits, you had to pick it up much earlier than 5 to keep them from giving it to walk-ins). Kinda silly, I know, but if you get a spot in the lottery, they don't actually send you the permit, but instead paperwork saying that they will have a permit waiting for you ...
Good point. The website says the deadline is even more stupid -- 12:00 on the day prior for Mount Whitney Zone dayhikes:
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/inyo/recreation/wild/howto.shtml#deadlineMaybe they still let people pick up permits with the overnight drop-box, but the website isn't clear about that.
Clydascope wrote:I'd blow off Yosemite and stay on the eastside with those time constraints.
It would save a lot of driving. Yosemite is slow. And you might need to pick up the (dumbass) permit in Lone Pine the day before anyway. It's actually not too bad of a drive to go directly from Boundary to Whitney.
Here are some mileages:
I forgot if you mentioned which trailhead you are using, but it is about
280 miles from LAS to the Queen Canyon Road. I could tell you how long it takes me to drive that, but just plan on over 4 hours if you want to go the speed limit instead. In 2005, in a passenger car, it was less than 20 minutes to drive the
6.0 miles up the Queen Canyon Road to the parking area at around 9030 feet. A 4WD road takes you another mile to the saddle 750 feet higher, but I don't know if you will be renting that kind of vehicle. So figure 5 hours from LAS to the Boundary trailhead, including a stop for gas in Beatty.
Heading to Lone Pine, it's 20 minutes for the
6 miles down the Queen Canyon Road again, then it's
101 miles from that road to the Whitney Portal Road in Lone Pine, which should take no more than 2 hours, including 25-mph slow-downs through the cities. You will need to add additional time and a
couple of miles to pick up the permit in Lone Pine. Then it's easily under 20 minutes to do the
12 miles from Lone Pine to Whitney Portal. So that's about 3 hours from the Boundary trailhead to Whitney Portal, including a stop for gas and picking up the permit.
Of course, even a 30-minute drive can become a big deal if it's dark and you're tired from hiking all day. I will risk being Mom and Dad here and say pull over and sleep before you start nodding off, regardless of how badly you want to get to your destination. It's not just your life that is at stake on those high-speed two-lane roads.