I'll be in the park (on the trail) from October 25 - 30 and am trying to decide between 2 loops:
Option 1:
Day 1: 4 mile trail -> Glacier Point -> LYV via Panorama Trail [11.4 mi]
Day 2: LYV -> Diving Board, maybe to the base of the cables @ HD
Day 3: LYV -> Tenaya Lake via Cloud's Rest [11.7 mi]
Day 4: Tenaya Lake -> Snow/Lehamite Creek [10.2 mi]
Day 5: Snow/Lehamite Creek -> El Cap [9.3 mi]
Day 6: El Cap -> Valley via Eagle Pk / Yosemite Falls [9.6 mi]
TOTAL MILEAGE: 52.2 mi
Option 2:
Day 1: 4 mile trail -> Glacier Point -> LYV via Panorama Trail [11.4 mi]
Day 2: LYV -> Diving Board, maybe to the base of the cables @ HD
Day 3: LYV -> Sunrise Lakes via Cloud's Rest [11.7 mi]
Day 4: Sunrise Lakes -> Rafferty Creek [12.3 mi if via Tuolumne/11.4 mi otherwise]
Day 5: Rafferty Creek -> Merced Lake [13.2 mi]
Day 6: Merced Lake: -> Happy Isles [13.1]
TOTAL MILEAGE: 61.7 mi/60.8 mi
Here are my concerns...
Option 1: My main concern is with finding water. I know most (all?) of the smaller creeks will be dry by now. I'm also aware of the fact that there aren't exactly close water sources on top of El Cap. Without water, I'm obviously in trouble.
Option 2: My concern here is the weather. If it snows 3' when I'm out near Vogelsang, that's trouble. This loop looks more interesting to me, but also looks significantly more physically demanding.
Thoughts?