is that the route rangers take when they're in a hurry to get up the mountain?
Yep. It's what used to be the MWMT hiking trailhead years ago, before the FS re-routed it. What is now the current trailhead used to be a stock trail (roughly) - gentler grade, less sharp switchers. It starts behind a BIG boulder near the Portal Road bridge and sharply switches up to re-join the trail just to the south of the North Fork, bypassing it. That is it's biggest benefit, especially during a heavy creek flow that may inundate the rock hops. It's not maintained and is a bit gnarly. May cut 15 minutes off from the normal route. Maybe.
It's also the first of the Bob Rockwell Shortcuts that draw as straight a C2 line as possible between the Portal and Trail Camp.
