Red Cones to Horseshoe Lake
(6 miles, +1,500/-1,200 feet).

Today was super chill.  We rented a place in Mammoth for tonight, but check in was not until 4pm, so we took our time getting up.  We had a long breakfast, and then Geo, Bee’s Knees, Ultrashuffle, and I climbed up to the top of Red Cones.

Meanwhile Finder climbed the other cone across the way.

After descending, we all packed up and headed towards Mammoth Pass.

The snow was higher than when we crossed a week ago, this time starting around 9000 feet.

With no trail visible, we followed other people’s footsteps for a while.  But we turned east sooner than we should have and we ended up going above a cliff band that we should have passed below.

The silver lining is that we found a nice use trail to the Pass, and near the end of it we found nearly perfect conditions for glissading down the extra 100 feet we had climbed.

We stopped at the wilderness boundary for a group shot.

This time we passed McCloud Lake.

From there we made our way down to Horseshoe Lake

And then we were done!  We walked a bit to where the road was gated and then left Bee’s Knees with our packs under a shade tree.  We thought we would have to road walk down to Twin Lakes.

But the trolley was waiting for us after about half a mile.  It took us down to our cars and we went back for Bee’s Knees and the packs.

And then all that was left to do was to gorge at the Mammoth Brewery…..

I can’t wait to do it again!