• My notes on the Palisades (directions to Big Pine and to the trailhead, the trail's milestones, maps)
• My notes on Mt Whitney (directions to Lone Pine and to the trailhead, the trail's milestones, maps)

• Map of 395 (Eastern Sierras)
  
• Map of Lone Pine trailheads
  
  (PORTAL is the trailhead for Mt Whitney)
• Map of Big Pine trailheads
  
  (it looks like NSPARK is the trailhead for the Palisades, NSFORK is the Glacier Lodge, SAGFLT is the campground?)

• piero, Anne, Paul, Emily, David, Mihai, Shashi can leave at lunch time
• Valeriane and her friend?
• Ben and Hind get to Las Vegas from Boston at 9:12 PM on AirTran flight number 771. Amani will be driving from San Diego, arriving to Vegas no later than 10 PM. They spend thursday night in Vegas.

• In principle: thursday night we camp at the last campground above Big Pine, which should be called Big Pine Creek (click here for info). Take Crocker Rd west (pretty much the only road in Big Pine). You will pass several campgrounds on the left, most of which are closed. The very last one is ours. The easiest thing to make sure you get the right one is to drive to the end of the road (the Glacier Lodge), make a u-turn and then turn into the first campground about 2 kms downhill (whatever its name is). It should be called Big Pine Creek but i am not 100% sure.
• This campground is popular and could be full. In that case, first check the bulletin board of the campground. If there is no note, check the parking lot 100 meters further up on the RIGHT handside marked by this sign ("Trailhead parking"). Look for my car (if you know which car i rented). There will be a note on the windshield. Most likely we are camping illegally near that trailhead.
• You can probably make reservations for this campground (if you figure out the correct name) but i don't have time to make them.

• piero has two
• Shashi has three
• Ben will buy four

• Shashi
• anybody else?

• piero has a tent for four
• Mihai has a tent for four
• Shashi has a tent for two
• Ben/Achraf has a tent for two
• Paul/Emily have a tent for two

• I'd use Enterprise because they have a location in Mammoth and Bishop (if something happens, we can just exchange car) but let me know if you have discounts with AVIS/Hertz/.
• piero has a reservation with Enterprise in Redwood City:
  Aug 9, 2007 @ 11:30 am
  Aug 13, 2007 @ 11:30 am

• Cell phones are unlikely to work away from cities, so do NOT plan to rely on phones at campgrounds or trailheads, but they do work in all towns (Bishop, Big Pine, Independence, Lone Pine).
• Thursday each car makes plans separately. See you in Big Pine at the above campground (if you want to hike friday). Make sure you arrive with food and drinks for friday's hike and with the backpack ready to go hiking on friday. If you don't want to hike on friday, you don't need to meet up on thursday night (we can meet for dinner friday night in Lone Pine, see below)
• Friday august 10 some of us will wake up at 4am and hike Mt Sill on a cross-country route. Others can hike to the glacier via a popular trail (seven-lake trail via Sam Mack Meadow). If you plan to start early, make sure you buy food and drinks the day before and you are ready to go at 4am.
• Friday night: dinner in Lone Pine at Bonanza on main street of Lone Pine (both Mexican and generic diner menus) or High Sierra Cafe (south on the same road) or Pizza Factory. Camp at Cottonwood Lakes or (for those who don't care about permits and go to Death Valley) at Telescope Peak or wherever..
• Saturday Anne and Shashi must pick up the permits. The others can check if there are extra permits available for sunday. Sleep, rest, sightseeing, etc. Buy food/drinks for sunday's hike. If you want a permit and don't have one, call the rangers to find out exactly at what time they start giving away the unused permits: 760 876-6200. There WILL be a line. (You can also shop for a permit on ebay, craigslist, summitpost, Whitney Portal, etc... actually, you should be doing it right now). If you don't care about permits and want to spend one day in Death Valley, this is the day.
• Saturday night dinner in Lone Pine at either of those restaurants and sleep at the trailhead. If you want to have a reservation for a campground, you make it.
• Sunday wake up at 2/3/4am and we start hiking Mt Whitney (permit required for the regular trail ABOVE Lone Pine lake: if you plan to hike only to the first lake, you DON'T need a permit). Those who hike the mountaineering route do not need a permit. If you have not climbed Mt Williamson or Mt Brewer, do NOT even think of trying the mountaineering route. My notes on Mt Whitney (read under "The Regular Trail" for those who have permits or "North Fork" for those who do the mountaineering route).
• Sunday evening shower at the Whitney Portal store and dinner in Bishop at Denny's
• Sunday night piero, Paul and Emily sleep somewhere in or near Yosemite. Everybody else goes home. (This is subject to change)

• Highway 395,
• Bodie ghost town,
• Mono Lake,
• Devil's Postpile (national monument),
• MAnzanar concentration camp,
• Death Valley's Eureka Sand Dunes (requires 4WD),
• Alabama hills (right in Lone Pine)

• Lone Pine
• Mt Whitney
• Disclaimer: i do not make the weather forecast, i only read it. Conditions on a mountain are always unpredictable.

See the checklist for this recent trip

There will be 4 of us. 3 are flying from Boston, and one of Hind's friend will be driving from San Diego to meet us in Vegas.

• Aug 9th: flying to Vegas
• Aug 12th- Red eye flight from Vegas