Steve and all-
Thanks for the great advice.
All new hikers should post their plans and get advice from the experienced hikers on this forum. That would certainly reduce the number of botched trips and SAR incidents.
I think what we will do is take the main trail up the north fork,turn around at the ledges, back to the main trail and then towards lone pine lake. I'd like to make outpost camp but we can just turn around whenever as the group gets tired. I'll save the shortcut route as a surprise for the way down.
Related, im really glad we booked in early August based on input from this forum because i just read another post that estimated the road to the white mountain gate might be blocked for several weeks. Whole trip would have been ruined if we couldn't make the locked gate due to snow.
Jeff
