Was back at Mammoth Lakes last week and went back to Minaret Lake. Last trip I went directly from Devil’s Post Pile to Minaret Lake via the Minaret Lake/creek trail, and then went cross country toward the Minaret Mines and back to the regular trail. This trip, I reversed the direction, taking the fork toward the Minaret Mines before cutting cross country to get back to Minaret Lake. I’m sure there is a better route than I have found so far, so may try again next trip.
As you can tell I really like this area. Much of the trail is tree shaded, and a good bit (25%?) of the trail is sand covered in leaves and pine needles. Like walking on carpet.
The route toward the Minaret Mines is very obscure, and easy to loose. My track can be found here:
http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.ph...08-26_06-09.gpxYou can see I went off trail a few times. I also cut over toward Minaret Lake too soon, so next trip will go all the way to the Mines and then come back watching for a better way over to the Lake.
I also want to get up to Cecile Lake, and provided I do not spend too much time finding my way over to Minaret Lake will climb up to Cecile Lake. My guess is that the climb will take ~ 1 hour, and then something less to return. This will make a very long day of it, likely 20 miles.
A few pics:
East Fork of Minaret Lake, taken from North end.
Grass beach on east side of West Fork
West Fork of Minaret Lake, taken from North end.
Climb up to Cecile Lake. Taken from same position as previous Picture.
