Thanks! Was going off of memory on my preliminary research, so my numbers must have been a little off, and I may have confused data from the different trailheads. I'm relatively sure we would have had that sorted before heading out (tend to pay greater attention to detail the closer the hike comes), but it's good to know there are stumbling blocks. I thought I saw a trail route with various elevations of different junctions that went down almost 1000 feet or so at one point and then went back up, but I could be wrong. My quick math/memory wasn't good on the other numbers either!
Appreciate the help - leaning towards doing it. That would at least be one day where I could avoid the 105 degree weather in Vegas.
Edit: on quick further research, a lot of the confusion comes from the two different trailheads. Most sites use the full North Loop (10.3 Miles one way) which starts at 8400 and goes down and back up. The shorter route you mentioned using Trail Canyon is a steady climb that starts lower around 7700 but is a couple miles shorter and eliminates the up and down. That would definitely be the more preferable route. This site cleared it up for me:
http://www.summitpost.org/north-loop-trail-canyon/156418
