Shuttle/Bus to Yarts in Mammoth? (reminder needed)

We could drop off a bicycle or a skateboard for you in Lone Pine.

–B.G.–

Oh man, I thought this would be easy and I saved it for the last moment. Turns out the default way looks like this:

Leave car, and stay in lone pine on night 0, take bus early in morning NOBO to mammoth night 1 and stay in hotel. Take yarts early in morning to TM to get wilderness permit. Then take hiker bus to White wolf, and stay overnight on night 2. Start trip morning of day 3. It seems ridiculous. Made more complicated by the fact that I need to stop at a wilderness office the day before.

BTW is there a good place to leave cars in mammoth long term?

Edit: argh, ok that is exactly what I'm gonna do then Lone pine to Mammoth, then mammoth to TM, then TM to WW. I guess even with the hotels, I still may be saving money by using public transport.

I feel like both my mental condition and my potential BO will be more in line on saving travel on the back end of the trip, so leaving my car at the Lone pine chamber of Commerce.

a possibly quicker option might be to take the bus from Lone Pine to Lee Vining, then try to hitch a ride up to Tuolumne.
if successful it would only take 1 day.
if unsuccessful you just spend the night in Lee Vining area and catch YARTS the next morning.
no time lost for trying.

Eastern Sierra Transit

Marko,

Another option (what we're doing) is to hire a private shuttle from Lone Pine to Mammoth, arriving in time to catch the YARTS bus. Economically, it costs about the same — it just feels more convenient to me to do it in one day.

(Of course, right now, the only road into Yosemite Valley from the east is closed b/c of fire. This may change by the time you leave, though…)

BTW, we hired East Side Sierra Shuttle (Paul Freitheim) — he seems to be very professional.

if you decide to go with your plan to take a bus to Mammoth and then YARTS from Mammoth the next morning …
one of the YARTS bus stops is at the McDonalds (actually the hotel next door).
across the street from McDonalds is a large campground if you would prefer to camp rather than spend money on a hotel. They are called Old Shady Rest and New Shady Rest Campgrounds and are right at the edge of Mammoth, easy walk to coffee and restaurants.

If the fire continues to be a problem in Yosemite you could totally change plans and go into the wilderness via Reds Meadow.

You can get from Lone Pine to Yosemite in 1 day, the first bus arrives in Mammoth at the McDonald's at 8:20, the yarts bus leaves the same area at 8:30, no need to stay the night in Mammoth.

Justin is correct.
The YARTS schedule this year seems much better than in the past when there was only 1 bus leaving Mammoth at 7:30 AM.
This year there is one at 8:30 and another at 11:30 AM
(Shilo Inn = McDonalds).

So problem solved.

YARTS Schedules