Whitney Portal Road

Good couple of days in Lone Pine. Plan was to do Whitney Portal and Horseshoe Meadows on the roadie. Whitney climb went well early in morning. Temps were in high 90's by the time I got back down to junction of W.Portal & Horseshoe, so I headed back to the Whitney Portal Hostel on Main Street (nice, clean rooms, $23./night) Waited till about 4pm but a storm front had moved in over Lone Pine/Mt. Whitney and the wind was 20+ kts. so I bagged the second climb.

Will be back with the 29'er to do both, same day with plenty of water. Horseshoe is exposed all the way and plenty challenging grades.

Sierra's are so fine.

 

Thats awesome, those are two tough climbs. If you haven't done them, try Big Pine to Glacier Lodge and Independence to Onion Valley. Beautiful climbs and crazy descents!

 

Thanks. I'm making plans for more climbs up there. I'm tempted to do them on the 29'er since I gain gearing and space for more water and stuff with the bikepacking gear.

Any of the fire roads up there to recommend?

 

Quite a ride up the portal; I've only driven up that steep mother.
Great pic of the pancake.

 

very neat! Thx for sharing!

 

Nice work! A few of us (MTBmaven, Bergsteiger, and Good ol Slappy) bagged both of those climbs last October. Awesome climbs. Did you hit over 50 mph on the descent off the Portal? I did for a second then grabbed the brakes because the speed wobbles scared the crap out of me!

 

Thanks. I enjoyed those great pics you guys took of your ride. I added Mt.Whitney to my climbing list after I saw your thread. I topped out in mid 40's off the Portal - still some road rock in places. The roll back into town after you leave the switchbacks is some fun.

 

I haven't been up there, but I've heard that Coyote Flats out of Bishop is worth checking out.

And for paved climbs, its hard to beat Tioga Pass Road from Lee Vining. You can park at Whoa Nelly Deli, ride to the pass, then continue on to Toulumne Meadows, or even Olmstead Point (where you can see Half Dome). There can be a fair amount of traffic, but the scenery is unbelievable and the descent to your car is insane.

 

Cool, thanks!

 

cool. i probably shouldn't say this but oh well. we once rode up whitney portal road on our mountain bikes and rode down lower whitney trail (not alot of folks even know it exists). but the whitney trail continues at portal and drops another 3000 or so to the desert. obvisouly highly illegal it started out very technical then got super fast/sandy. now we just need the government to shut down so i can add in the top 6000

 

The trail from the portal to Lone Pine CG?
It's not in wilderness, are bikes bannedd?

 

I was in Lone Pine CG about two weeks ago and the sign at the bottom said no bikes, I assume it says the same thing at the top.

 

another pointless illegal trail especially since it sees almost no hikers.

 

yea. It was pretty quiet around the Portal Road that weekend. I didn't see any other bikers or hikers the whole time.

reminded me of a question I wanted to ask: where to go if you got some major bike mechanical around Lone Pine? Independence?

 

Aerohead cycles in Bishop?

Footloose in Mammoth.

Spare bike.. in your trunk!