Trip Planning - places I've never been or stayed

[stevet]

Trying to piece together a trek before summer runs out. If it happens, mid-September. Appreciate feedback on the route and suggested nearbys to consider, and potential gotchas. Will be solo. thanks.

Day 1: Start at South Lake, over Knapsack Pass camping at the larger Barrett Lake (never stayed)
Day 2: Over Cirque, over Mather, then over Amphitheatre Pass/Upper Basin Divide to Amphitheatre Lake (never been that way)
Day 3: Over Cataract Creek Pass, over Dumbell Pass into Lakes Basin (never been that way)
Day 4: Over Cartridge Pass and up the talus slope to Bench Lake (never stayed, could as alternate walk the long way)
Day 5: Over Pinchot, over Colisseum Col to Woods Lake (never been that way, never stayed)
Day 6: the SoSHR route up Baxter Peak, over Basin Notch and into Sixty Lakes Basin (never been that way, never stayed)
Day 7: Over Sixty Lakes Col and into Gardiner Basin (never been that way, never stayed)
Day 8: Over Gardiner Pass, stay the night at Kearsarge Lakes (never been that way, never stayed)
Day 9: Out over Kearsarge Pass to Onion Valley. Thumb ride back to South Lake and my car.

[giantbrookie]

I presume that some of the longer routes to reach places are because you've done the more direct routes before?
Day 2--This day of the 4 passes (Potluck, Cirque, Mather, and the last one to get out of Upper Basin) seems super long and indirect. Descending Barrett Creek then going up Cataract is more direct. That having been said, I descended and later ascended the Barrett Creek route in 1993 and it is unclear whether conditions have changed since I hiked it. The only other person I know who has done this since told me he was cursing my name as he was stuck in nasty brush. I intend to "recheck" this next year.
Day 4--Just looking at the topo, it seems like swinging a bit downstream (W) on the Kings before ascending to Bench Lake will make the ascent to Bench much less steep and may save time overall.
Day 5--I like off trail hiking, but I do it if it's the most efficient route. In this case, the off trail finish to Woods is much slower than simply staying on the trail.

[stevet]

Thanks for the insight.

Agree, day 2 may be a bit of a stretch. I've done Knapsack, Potluck, and Cirque in a day and that was tough, and I've done Cirque and Mather in a day and that is pretty easy. The question for me is the Amphitheater pass, any insight into this? But dropping down Barrett Creek or even Glacier Creek both "qualify" as never been that way.

The routing from Cartridge to Bench Lake...noted.

The route over Baxter is not intended to be efficient, rather to do something new AND that evaded me a couple years ago.