We got up in no hurry to get moving the next morning and had our breakfast and coffee before packing up. We hoped to get down to Echo Valley and then up to Obelisk Lake today. It would be a little ways to go, and end with the 3,000 vertical foot climb up Quartzite Peak.

Hazy Cathedral Peak in the morning.

Another hazy Cathedral Peak as we filtered a few liters of water for the hike down to Echo Valley. We set off on the trail for Cathedral Pass just before 10, passing all of the camps at Cathedral Lake before cresting the pass, which is not really that high when coming from this direction.

Cathedral Peak through the trees from near Cathedral Pass.

A couple of photos of Cathedral Peak and Echo Peaks from the higher point south of Cathedral Pass.

Matthes Crest to the east through the haze.

After crossing Cathedral Pass, we started down the John Muir Trail towards Long Meadow. We passed a couple of other backpackers out doing sections of the JMT or the High Sierra Camps Loop, but otherwise it wasn’t very busy. We stopped for a snack and drink break at Long Meadow before climbing the divide and crossing to the Cathedral Fork and dropping down into the forest. There isn’t too much to see on this trail, besides the occasional view of the Clark Range, and the smoke was fairly bad, so we just put our heads down and hiked along. When we reached the creek bed we were surprised to see that it too was dry. Guess we wouldn’t be refilling water until we got to the Merced.

We were moving slower than expected, probably due to our early trip heavy packs and the impacts of the smoke which was taking its toll physically and mentally, so we didn’t reach Echo Valley until 3:30. Figuring that we wouldn’t have time to get all the way up and over Quartzite Peak and that we didn’t want to be farther from the trailhead if the smoke worsened tomorrow, we changed our plan and hiked up the Merced River to Merced Lake where we made camp at the backpacker’s campground.

Some aspens near the outlet of Merced Lake.

Looking across Merced Lake at the aspens. At about 5:30 we found a good site in the backpackers campground at Merced Lake, along with about five other groups. We set about doing our evening chores before sitting down to enjoy dinner.

Over dinner we discussed our plan for the rest of the trip. The smoke had been bad, but we thought that it might improve when a cold front came through the next day. We weren’t quite willing to commit to that idea, though, so we decided that we would head up the trail towards Vogelsang Pass and then reevaluate the next day. If smoke conditions improved we could join the High Route there and hike clockwise, if they didn’t then we would be closer to exiting. We figured that we could also climb Vogelsang Peak the next day, which would be a nice treat for my birthday. With a plan set, we tucked in for a comfortably warm night at Merced Lake.