High Sierra Topix

We are planning a nine day hike from out of Cathedral Lakes trailhead. We already have a permit in place but are lookinf for some advice.
We have the following plan:
Day 1: Cathedral Lakes to Junction JMT/ sunrise / towards Echo Valley (6.6M)
Day 2: to Echo Valley (6.7M)
Day 3: to Little Yosemite Valley (6.7M)
Day 4: towards Merced pass, along Illiouette Creek (8M)
Day 5: Illiouette Creek to lower Ottoway Lake (8M)
Day 6: Lower Ottoway Lake to Triple Fork Junction (7.5m)
Day 7: either to Merced Lake ranger station or Lewis Creek (9M)
Day 8: Vogel sang lake (7M)
Day 9: Cathedral Lakes trailhead (9M)

The trip plan seems fine to us, but would like to hear from you any ideas /suggestions. In particular we would like to hear if there is good camping/water available at the suggested stops.

Another question we would be interested in, is the stretch on day 7. Looking into the map, we could take the route following the Merced river. The other option is to go the route at higher elevation, on the east side of the canyon. Does anyone have suggeston which route will be better?more interesting? It seems that taking the route on higher elevation, avoids climbing between Merced Lake ranger station up towards Lewis Creek although this does not look very hard in the map.

Also, on day 8, would you suggest to go via Vogelsang lake, or via Fletcher Creek/ Emeric Creek route?

We look forward to your suggestions!

Obrknoch

One quick question...used to be you had to have an additional permit to camp in LYV (day 3). My guess is it's still that way. Do you have the extra permit ?

We are planning a nine day hike from out of Cathedral Lakes trailhead. We already have a permit in place but are lookinf for some advice.
We have the following plan:
Day 1: Cathedral Lakes to Junction JMT/ sunrise / towards Echo Valley (6.6M)
Day 2: to Echo Valley (6.7M)
Day 3: to Little Yosemite Valley (6.7M)
Day 4: towards Merced pass, along Illiouette Creek (8M)
Day 5: Illiouette Creek to lower Ottoway Lake (8M)
Day 6: Lower Ottoway Lake to Triple Fork Junction (7.5m)
Day 7: either to Merced Lake ranger station or Lewis Creek (9M)
Day 8: Vogel sang lake (7M)
Day 9: Cathedral Lakes trailhead (9M)

The trip plan seems fine to us, but would like to hear from you any ideas /suggestions. In particular we would like to hear if there is good camping/water available at the suggested stops.

Another question we would be interested in, is the stretch on day 7. Looking into the map, we could take the route following the Merced river. The other option is to go the route at higher elevation, on the east side of the canyon. Does anyone have suggeston which route will be better?more interesting? It seems that taking the route on higher elevation, avoids climbing between Merced Lake ranger station up towards Lewis Creek although this does not look very hard in the map.

Also, on day 8, would you suggest to go via Vogelsang lake, or via Fletcher Creek/ Emeric Creek route?

We look forward to your suggestions!

Obrknock

- Why are you running past Cathedral Lakes, they are quite pretty and worth spending a night.
- Would not camp at Little Yosemite Valley, it is a zoo and it attracts bear, dispersed camping is allowed at Moraine Dome and beyond.
- Echo Valley is boring and lots of rattlesnakes.
- Try to stay or at least spend some time at Red Devil Lake.
- Washburn Lake is pretty nice, but if you can take the high route and hike up the Lyell Fork a little ways to the meadow for a night, it will be one of the highlights of your trip.
- Would stay at Bernice Lake instead of Vogelsang Lake. Fletcher Creek is nice, but Lewis is prettier.
- You'll have water all along your route.

thanks guys, no we do not have another permit. I will look into that or, tips would be great as well. However, looking at Mavericks feedback, we might change the route a bit! Especially the idea of hiking up Lyell Fork sounds nice. Thanks a lot for that. We look forward to the hike a lot. After a few years hiking on the eastside of the Sierra's, we are a bit uncertain on taking a hike in Yosemite itself. We expect though that there will be not so much of a crowd anymore since we are already in mid September.

Any other suggestions still more than welcome!

The Other Tom wrote:One quick question...used to be you had to have an additional permit to camp in LYV (day 3). My guess is it's still that way. Do you have the extra permit ?

They have never in my memory required that. Just the wilderness permit.

AlmostThere wrote:

The Other Tom wrote:One quick question...used to be you had to have an additional permit to camp in LYV (day 3). My guess is it's still that way. Do you have the extra permit ?

They have never in my memory required that. Just the wilderness permit.

We did Half Dome as an overnighter a few years back. A ranger stopped us between Nevada falls and LYV to check our wilderness permit and informed us we didn't have the proper permit to stay in LYV. Since we weren't planning on doing that anyway we were ok.

Edit: I just checked the regs and it's a little confusing to me but it seems like you can't spend your first night in LYV unless your permit is for LYV. That's probably why the ranger informed us we couldn't stay there because our permit said Half Dome. However, apparently you are allowed to stay there your second night (or subsequent nights) even if the permit doesn't say LYV. If that's the case OP should be ok. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

The Other Tom wrote:

AlmostThere wrote:

The Other Tom wrote:One quick question...used to be you had to have an additional permit to camp in LYV (day 3). My guess is it's still that way. Do you have the extra permit ?

They have never in my memory required that. Just the wilderness permit.

We did Half Dome as an overnighter a few years back. A ranger stopped us between Nevada falls and LYV to check our wilderness permit and informed us we didn't have the proper permit to stay in LYV. Since we weren't planning on doing that anyway we were ok.

Because if it is your first night out, you need to have a HI to LYV permit. No doubt you had a HI pass through - that would require you to camp two miles beyond LYV. There is no additional permit necessary -- you have to be on a separate quota from the people with a pass through permit. It's a quota problem, not a permit problem. The ranger was probably catching people with a pass through intending to stay in LYV. It's often a misunderstanding with newbies to Yosemite backpacking permits that they think they can go anywhere and do anything with one.

Beyond the first night out, it's of no consequence - you can spend a night in LYV along the way if you want to, on the last night is a popular choice, then it's a short walk downhill to a late breakfast at Curry.