Tuolumne Meadows to Yosemite Valley Hike Oct. 3-5

[BigTFlyer]

Hello everyone,

New to this forum but am already learning a lot. Looking to do my first backcountry camping hike coming up the first weekend of Oct. (3rd-5th) with three of my friends. All of us have some hiking experience, but are all in good shape and in our late 20’s to early 30’s. The plan for right now:
Friday – start out at Tuolumne meadows (trail head of Cathedral Lakes) and pretty much follow the John Muir Trail to Cathedral Lakes, do lunch. Then move on down and camp overnight at the Sunrise Lakes.
Saturday – Continue on John Muir trail down to Clouds Rest and camp overnight on the south side of Cloud Rest.
Sunday – Finish the 5 miles down into the valley and back to our car.

Here are my question:

1. Not knowing the terrain, I tried to be conservative on the breakdown of each day… is this a reasonable time frame for this hike?
2. Besides getting permits for the Cathedral lakes trail head, will I need any other permits?
3. Are there any specific challenges along this trail that a new person may not know about?
4. I know that the shuttle services stops in Mid Sept, and the YARTS looks like it stops on Sept. 28th. What is the best way to get a ride from the Valley up to Tuolumne Meadows? Hitchhiking was suggested, but I wanted to try and have something set up before we got up there. Is there a forum or website where people can arrange transportation like that?

Thank you guys for your help… I look forward to hearing your advice!

Tim

[AlmostThere]

You might want to look at the area being burned down and rethink - I suspect that the fire will result in trails being closed for a while after it is put out due to hazard trees.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/parknews/meadow ... erness.htm

A good portion of your route is being burned right now.