Trip Advice: Cathedral Range (Yosemite) cross-country trip:

[audiorecordist]

The more info I gather from ya'll, the more my sense of adventure grows a bit, as well as my confidence. So much thankful your time to reply.

Also, has anyone ever attempted to cross country all the way down Echo Creek, to where the two creeks Cathedral and Echo meet? How does this route look on the ground? Woody? Rocky? Easy or tough to navigate? Okay for beginners? I'm thinking we could have this as an option too, and then simply meet up with the JMT and head back towards Cathedral.

[audiorecordist]

The more info I gather from ya'll, the more my sense of adventure grows a bit, as well as my confidence. So much thankful your time to reply.

Also, has anyone ever attempted to cross country all the way down Echo Creek, to where the two creeks Cathedral and Echo meet? How does this route look on the ground? Woody? Rocky? Easy or tough to navigate? Okay for beginners? I'm thinking we could have this as an option too, and then simply meet up with the JMT and head back towards Cathedral.

[oddtiger]

@audiorecordist Yes it's the right location. I don't have any experience with the red route, but I think you will be fine with the "steep" one. Just follow the mellow part along the trees/shrubs/broken granites you'll get over it.

[wildhiker]

Wow oddtiger, this is really helpful. You documented the entire route, but especially up the steep granite very well. I think we will attempt the route you laid out, seems pretty straight-forward in terms of navigation. In case we decide that the steep granite pass from Nelson to Matthes is too steep for our knees and weight of bags, we will likely go the longer route. Below I outlined that route.

Just to confirm, can you or anyone else confirm if I have the correct location of the two passes? Much thanks.

Cathedral Crosscountry.jpg

The red line on your map is approximately the one that I used last year and the year before. Here's a map of the routes I have done in this area. Solid lines are trails; dotted lines are cross-country.
-Phil

[balzaccom]

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Solid lines are trails; dotted lines are cross-country.
-Phil

NelsonLake2EchoLake.jpg
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Except that the trail to Nelson Lake is a use trail. Officially classified in the part as cross country.

[audiorecordist]

Cathedral Crosscountry.jpg
[/quote]

The red line on your map is approximately the one that I used last year and the year before. Here's a map of the routes I have done in this area. Solid lines are trails; dotted lines are cross-country.
-Phil

NelsonLake2EchoLake.jpg
[/quote]

Many thanks! Appreciate the confirmation. We are ready to go.

[adam]

here's a photo album from approximately the trip you describe (see first picture, which is a map): https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipN ... QUIuSAyUzX

we had a ton of fun, and pretty much every place was nice, as was the walking between destinations. A few notes- this trip was in october; the first campsite only worked because there was some snow from a recent storm on the ground for water. our route to nelson lake was non-standard- we were trying to cut to reymann, then changed our minds and just bombed down to nelson. But I've done the standard nelson route before, and as others said, it's easy. also, we exited from cathedral to budd lake, then from there to the road. I like this a lot- the saddle is extra elevation, but it's really nice, and dead easy- the only route finding beyond just walking up hill and then downhill on the other side is getting around a few small cliffs near the budd lake exit. If you aim for a spot about 200m downstream from the lake, rather than the lake itself, you miss these issues. There is no official trail from budd lake to hwy 120, but it's very much there, and easy to follow home. And nicer than the cathedral lake trail, in my opinion.