UKC

Managed to convince the boss to give me three weeks off and I have just booked flights to San Francisco on the 4th September for 3 weeks.

I want to take in Yosemite, Bishop and Lake Tahoe for Mtb and my questions are:

1) Is this possible without renting a car? Anyone been to Bishop without a car and still managed to get around?

2) How difficult is it going to be to find climbing partners in these places (I'm going on my tod.)

Cheers for your help.

P.S. Anyone who wants to come along or is already out there, sent me an email.

In reply to Tru:
Hi Tru,
If you don't rent a car you have 2 options; buses or hitching.

I have hitched in the area (with my wife) a few times now and found it pretty straightforward. At least away from the big cities anyway. The towns on the 395 up Owens Valley (Bishop, Lone Pine, Independance, Mammoth Lakes, Lee Vining) should all be ok for hitching. Also Tuolumne Meadows on Tioga Pass Road(which I recommend as a wonderful area and has a campsite, cafe and gear shop) should be good for hitching too, possibly also for picking up climbing partners. Although I guess Yosemite valley itself will be the best spot for meeting climbers as it's the busiest.

In the US, public transport like buses are pretty hard to come by and climbing venues tend to be out of the way from the bus networks. Amtrak and Greyhound do run buses though from the cities to Yosemite. So that would be a good way to get there initially.

My first option though if you can do it is to rent a car. Everything in the US is designed around the car and it will enable you to do more in the time available.

That said if you choose to bus/ hitch you will likely have a great adventure and meet lots of interesting dudes. We haven't really had a bad hitching experience in our year's of hiking / climbing trips out there. We find a succesful tactic is to talk to people at a campsite, cafe, trail, climbing crag and ask for lifts in person. That's a quicker tactic if you can do it than standing at the side of roads. But obviously be careful and be prepared to say no to an offer of a lift if you have doubts.

I should say also that September is possibly my favourite time in the Sierra area. Quieter, warm days and cold nights. I am envious- have a great trip whatever you decide !

Brian

In reply to Tru:
for mtb tahoe is ok the rim trail is good if you do it all but overated. If you want an awesome time get yourself to Downieville. You can get an uplift begged or pay for and do the 25km singletrack downhill (about 6000' of descent)back to the town. google is your friend. pm me if you want more info.
For tahoe you could get a train from the bay area up to truckee which is a hop to north lake tahoe and the start of the rim trail. i rode the rim trail from kings grade round clock wise to north lake 1 day with west shore on pavement/road as hills are no biked on that side. then a half day round from north lake to kings grade. i bivvied in the woods behind the firestation...no bears ate me.

In reply to Tru:

Take care, I think there is some funny law about hitching in a national park (or at least in Yosemite). I'd cut your trip to two venues as its a long way even in a car; or even one as Yosemite is easily good enough for 3 weeks. Tahoe's normally better than Bishop at that time of year but we got snowed out of the Sierra in mid september a couple of years back and went to Joshua Tree in the end.

In reply to Tru:

You should mtb Marin. Awesome.