Perhaps a better entry/exit location would be the Mammoth/Yosemite airport. United Airlines runs daily flights between LA and MMTH, and Alaska Airlines has daily flights to and from San Francisco to MMTH. From Mammoth you have YARTS to Yosemite and ESTA from Lone Pine to Mammoth. All of this depends on the schedules, of course.
This local shuttle might get you from Whitney Portal to Lone Pine, if you don't want to hitch:
http://www.highsierrashuttle.com/By offering the above alternatives, I am assuming you are flying from Vermont.
Getting from Lone Pine to Fresno would be quite awkward, as Steve has pointed out.
