I was too exhausted to take the short detour to Lone Pine Lake on the way back, and I was a hallucinating zombie the last 1.5 miles or so with no thoughts other than getting back to the parking lot.
I scratched that itch yesterday and did the hike to Lone Pine Lake. I barely carried anything, so I felt like a superhuman and moved really fast. It took me just an hour and five minutes to touch the sign saying that permits are required beyond that point, which was at least half an hour faster than my summit attempt two weeks ago.
The lake was quiet, calm, and soothing, and the only other person there was a couple who was camping there for the night. The hike was also nice, since I did that part in the dark on my way up last time, and I was too tired to look at or enjoy the views on my way down.
I suggest you investigate the
"old" trail. It is not really a trail, but more a "boot track", but not difficult to follow. It cuts a bit off the distance, but also avoids one creek crossing.
On my way back from Lone Pine Lake, I caught up with a group that took the Old Trail down, so it was a good opportunity to check out the trail. There are short sections where it's a little steep and slightly overgrown, but there were generally minimal issues in taking the trail down. The hardest part was finding where the trail branched off from the main trail. IIRC, I heard someone say last night that it was 17 paces downhill of the "Hiker Notice" sign.
It actually avoids two creek crossings, not one - the Main Trail crosses Carillon Creek and the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek, while the Old Trail has no creek crossings at all.
The sleep issue is an odd one to me as I've always found that vigorous exercise gets rid of lack of sleep yuckiness. There's been many a climb where we've gotten a 2 or 3:00 start, and sure, you start out feeling like your head is full of cotton, etc., but over the course of an hour or so, everything is fine. I've always assumed that exercise clears whatever toxins, etc. are causing that feeling. Perhaps it is an individualist thing.
I felt fatigued, sleepy, and a very tiny bit lightheaded and dizzy shortly after leaving Trail Camp, at around 7:10 AM. At first I thought that it might be AMS, but that doesn't seem to be the case since it went away when I climbed higher up.
