Bondholder / Bonholder Trailhead at Cathedral Cabins

[dscott4305]

We're planning to take Bondholder Trail from Cathedral Cabins in order to summit Stewart, Baldy Alto, and San Luis. I haven't found much, if any, information of others that have taken this route. Any thoughts here?
thanks in advance

[Candace66]

I wanted to get back there a few years ago, as an alternate way to access the Cebolla Trail. But as soon as I turned off Road 788 onto Road 592, I seemed to run into private property issues and saw no way to freely continue south on the road. I didn't feel like stopping and trying to contact the residents of the houses there (in part because it was pouring rain!). So I left.

I'm still curious about it, though. Is there a right-of-way to drive Road 592 south, past those houses? And through the private property shown on the topo map at the north end of Bondholder Meadows? Can you drive all the way to the Wilderness closure (south end of Bondholder Meadows)? The FS map layer on Lists of John shows the Bonholder Trail and Cascade Creek Trail going south from that point.

Also, is there a known route up Baldy Alto from back there? I missed Baldy Alto, and an alternative to the eastern approaches would be welcome.

[dscott4305]

Thank you for your reply.

Our son and I are planning a trek to the area and staying at Cathedral Ranch Cabins night 1 before heading south on the Bonholder Trail morning 1.

Our plan is to make base camp in the area of the feet of Stewart Peak, Baldy Alto, and San Luis Peak and summit each of them over the course of 2-3 days. After we're done, we'll head back to Cathedral Ranch Cabins for a shower and sleep on a bed.

The two questions I'm struggling with are private property (two crossings: one, I believe, is owned by the Cathedral Ranch Cabins people and they seem okay with us accessing the southbound Bonholder trail from their property; the other is further south, so I'm emailing with the owners of Cathedral Ranch asking them if they know who to contact), and no known trail guides on 14ers.com regarding this approach to these three summits.

For what it's worth, I summited Stewart Peak in approximately 1981 from this same direction (via the Cebolla Trail, I believe).

Thank you in advance for any further thoughts and I, as well, will share what I learn.

Our planned route enclosed for what it's worth.

- D Scott

[Candace66]

Thanks for the info. I look forward to seeing the response you get regarding access to the end of road 592.

Without any beta, it's hard to tell what you'll run into on your proposed route. In such cases, studying satellite imagery can help but I know from experience that conditions on the ground may hold surprises.

I've wondered how easy or hard it is these days to follow the stretch of the Cebolla Trail going east and up from Road 592. I'm not sure how long access to the road has been prohibited or at least discouraged. I take it access was not an issue in ~1981 when you went out there for Stewart Peak?

[dscott4305]

Apologies for delay responding...in ~1981, we were dropped off somewhere and hiked into the wilderness over several days and didn't see a soul. I don't recall ever running into access issues.

I've mapped out a pretty good route from Cathedral Cabins using AllTrails. Fingers crossed!

I'll let you know what I learn along the way in about 3-4 weeks after we get back.

[Boggy B]

According to OnX (via county assessors) both parcels are owned by the same person so you should be good to go with permission from the ranch.
Also here's some 2017 beta: https://confluence.org/confluence.php?lat=38&lon=-107