"Pumice Butte -> Birthday Peak -> Red Cones Essentially an active rest day. Most of the day’s participants started at Horseshoe Lake Trailhead due to Mason giving them bad advice. We met up precisely as our routes merged along the PCT. I struggled with the soft cinders on the off trail portion. I labored up the final slopes of Pumice Butte, and I was rewarded with an amazing view. We had so many people on the summit at once. I ate and drank quite a bit, and I resigned to return to the trailhead and leave it as an easy day. On my walk back through the forest, I saw Bob, David and Tom B, and their company convinced me to climb Birthday Peak, which Andy Smatko named after climbing it on his 70th birthday. Then we continued over rough cross country to the Red Cones. These were very cool and we climbed both. A warm dusty trail took us back down to Red’s Meadow where we finished in the early afternoon. Afterwards we had our Sierra Challenge Cook-off. My giant tritip got 2nd place, but that’s because voting partially took place before the meat was ready." — seancasserly • Aug 11, 2024

"At the end of Lake Mary Rd, there is a parking area for Horseshoe Lake and for the Mammoth Pass Trailhead. In the first half mile, I reached scenic McCloud Lake. Just beyond there is Mammoth Pass, where the trail crosses into the Ansel Adams Wilderness. The forest and nearby cliffs are rather scenic on the way to Red Cones. The peak climbing of Red Cones is actually a two peak climb. The first was North Red Cone, which is actually the shorter of the two. Although the views are worth the visit on its own, I felt determined to get up the South Red Cone as well. It required getting back on the trail and hiking another mile to where I found myself at the base of South Red Cone. I had to leave the trail there to do a short x-country route through the forest to get closer. I didn't see a use trail at first, so I went for it up the slope. It only took a few dozen yards, though, before I found a use trail that gradually climbed up the side. I followed it to the summit. This was the true high point, complete with a summit register. I'm glad that I took the effort to get both summits, since it made the hike seem properly visited." — MikeTeeples • Jul 28, 2021