I'm planning a 3 day/2 night backpacking trip in August during the week (not weekend) with my wife.
Of course Happy Isles is booked so I got a permit for Mono Meadows. My plan is to begin at Happy Isles anyway, hike to the top of Half Dome, set up camp somewhere along Sunrise Creek on the John Muir trail (12 miles on day 1). Day 2 we will continue to Sunrise Lakes and then to Merced Lake for night 2. Day 3 we'll exit via Happy Isles.
Three Questions:
1) Seeing that we're not actually entering the trailhead on our permit, do you think there will be any problems? It is believable that we reach our night 1 camp area from Mono Meadow so I'm only really concerned with getting stopped on Happy Isles as we begin. We could say that we're doing a day hike to Half Dome, which we wouldn't need a permit for, but then again we'll have large packs so that might not be believeable.
2) How difficult is that first day of of hiking?
3) Is it safe to stash our packs somewhere off the trail as we ascend Half Dome?
Thanks for any help.