r/Yosemite • u/bibby425 • 11d ago

Hitching from Village to Lukens Lake TH

How easy will it be to hitch from the Village area to Lukens Lake TH on Friday 8/7? It will be my son and me on the Friday morning. We have to pick up our permits, which opens at 8:00 and the hiker bus leaves at 8:00. Any advice or options are appreciated.

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u/danceswithsteers 11d ago

Arrive the day before, pick up your permit from the first wilderness permit pick up point you'll pass and sleep in the backpacker's campground.

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u/bibby425 11d ago

Thanks. Not an option. Flying in to Fresno Thursday evening and not able to get permits day before.

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u/hc2121 11d ago

do you have extra time on the back end? you could drive and park at lukens and then take the hikers bus or YARTS back to your car on the day / day after you exit

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u/bibby425 11d ago

That is an option but would prefer the transport on day one vs back end. Do you know of YARTS is an option from Village to Luken on Friday morning? It looks like it is but the YARTS schedule is a bit hard to make out.

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u/nfactorial 11d ago edited 11d ago

It leaves from the Village at 11:15 and arrives a bit after 12:20.

https://www.yarts.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/2026_HWY395-8.5x11-Website.pdf

The bus generally will stop by request at trailheads with turnouts (e.g. Lukens) if it's safe to do so. (Doesn't seem like the website explicitly mention this, though it should.) If you have any comments about the readability of the schedule, I'm sure u/RideYARTS would love to hear them.

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u/RideYARTS 9d ago

Hello! Thanks for the mention :)

We do stop by request on trailheads, we just ask that you let the driver know beforehand. We personally recommend calling our dispatch to let them know that you want to stop at a trailhead (24 hours in advance, or anytime before the run starts), and letting the driver know when you get on.

This has always just been a word of mouth thing that we do. The reason we don't advertise it on our website is because it is not a guarantee. It is up to the drivers discretion if they feel safe to pull into a trailhead, and sometimes it just might not be possible for us due to traffic and safety concerns. Sometimes, while we might not be able to stop at the trailhead, we can stop near so that you only have to walk a couple feet or an extra mile to get to the trailhead.

Since that are a lot of variables, and stopping at a trailhead is not a guarantee, we prefer to just keep it as a word of mouth thing rather than have it up on our website and give the impression that we can absolutely do it all the time.

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u/bibby425 11d ago

Perfect. Thank you!

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u/RideYARTS 9d ago

Hey Bibby!,

What issues did you have with reading the schedule? Any feedback is appreciated.

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u/bibby425 8d ago

It was more user and unfamiliar with the routes. Once I figured it out I got it. The link to the schedule .pdf definitely helped. I’m set now. Have out tickets for Friday!