I am planning a southbound John Muir Trail through-hike for this coming August and September. I have been looking at the Eastern Sierra Transit and YARTS bus schedules and find that it is now apparently possible to make the trip from Lone Pine, where I will leave my car, to Yosemite in one day by changing buses in Lee Vining. The EST Lone Pine to Reno route leaves Lone Pine at 6:30 am and arrives in Lee Vining at 8:50 am on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The YARTS bus leaves Lee Vining at 9:27 am and arrives at the Yosemite Visitors Center at 12:05 pm. There is a short walk (<1/4 mile) from where the EST bus drops you off in Lee Vining to where the YARTS bus picks you up.

This seems too easy. When I hiked the JMT in 2008, the EST/YARTS transfer was in Mammoth and required an overnight stay in Mammoth before making the connection. I would like to use the bus if this is a correct interpretation of the bus schedules. Getting from Lone Pine to Yosemite in one day for about $30 sure beats the expense of hiring a shuttle driver. Can anyone confirm from experience whether I have correctly interpreted the bus schedules? I really hope that this will work out.

You can check out Eastern Sierra Transit schedules at: http://www.estransit.com/CMS/ and Yosemite Area Regional Transportation System schedules at: http://www.yarts.com/

My wife and I hiked the JMT SOBO in September. At that time, I think that bus schedules were reduced to the point that you had to go from Lone Pine to Mammoth via EST on a weekday, and you had to go via YARTS from there to Yosemite on a weekend. So we arranged to drive to Lone Pine on a Thursday and spent the night, then bussed to Mammoth on a Friday and spent the night there.

That sounds a bit crazy, but it did work and we figured we were getting a little elevation acclimation in while playing tourist along the way, so it really wasn't bad. And we got to Yosemite relatively early in the day and so got in a decent partial day of hiking.

If you go earlier in the season, it might be as you say, that you can do it in a single day. Or of course you can take a somewhat expensive shuttle.

I suggest that you call both the EST and YARTS folks and tell them exactly what you're planning, to include the specific date.