Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion sharing of resupply with Rainbow Outfitters

My wife and I are hiking the JMT and need a resupply at Le Conte ranger station on August 31. The cost is $600 but with a split only $300. For the price they will carry up to 150 lbs. Surely too much for only two resupply buckets.

Craig Matthews
(831) 688-6770

A lot of JMT/PCT hikers mail their food to the Bishop post office, and hike out to pick it up. Two days to do it that way, but is much cheaper than a packer resupply for one or two people. Then, you get to visit our town and see "the other side of the range."

The coming pack season is likely to be very short this Summer, and the pack stations won't be getting rich, that's for sure. That situation might drive prices up. It takes one packer, one horse, and one pack mule to ferry a resupply to Leconte from Rainbow for one or two hikers, which is an overnight trip from Rainbow for the packer.

If you hike out to Bishop you'll find resources for hiking supplies: Vons and Joseph's Market, and Eastside Sports (which has backpacking food, fuel, etc.), on Main Street. A lot of hikers do that instead of mailing a package to the post office.

As an alternative, you could resupply at Muir Trail Ranch, and then again at Onion Valley, and skip the LeConte resupply. It is a shorter hike out over Kearsarge Pass than Bishop Pass. You could probably hitch hike down from the trail head in the morning, and be back up there by evening.

I have seen that Mt Williamson Motel people cater to hikers, providing Onion Valley shuttle and resupply services to the trail head, but they are pricey, too.

I think they will hike in your resupply to the JMT. When I used their motel last August, owner Strider was doing such a resupply.

Steve's idea is that many JMT hikers use instead of one last resupply at MTR. Depending on how many miles you're planning on per day, some just push out from MTR. Besides the climb up Forrester, the section from the Kearsarge Pass trail cut off to Guitar is pretty tame.

Also, many find a loss of appetite at elevation. If you're hiking out after the Whitney summit, shoot for the tarn about 15 minutes past Guitar Lake. A lot less people there and the water source is a creek west of the trail. Whitney was really a great experience, but honestly Forrester was breath taking. Once you're on the south side of the pass and walking on that trail, it's unbelievable. Way better than the summit of Whitney.