[MangyMarmot]

After several weeks of not being able to get to the mountains, I just had to get out this weekend. I was originally just planning on Tinkham, but as I drove to the trailhead, another plan took shape. Instead of parking at he twin lakes trailhead, I drove up road 9030 all the way to where it crosses the PCT. There was nobody else there yet. I followed the PCT South to Mirror Lake. This section is quite flat so it went by fast. The weather was good, but the top of Tinkham would not shed a small cloud.

Tinkham and Mirror Lake

I rounded the South end of the lake and started up the ridge toward Tinkham. I expected to bushwhack, but there turned out to be a climbers trail. The trail led me all the way up to a rock field high on Tinkham. From there it wasn't far to the top. Unfortunately a much more substantial cloud was now sitting on the mountain so I got only brief views of the surrounding area.

Big Brother is watching you! These signs were on every other tree. I must have passes at least 100 on Tinkham.

Looking back toward the car at the pass between Silver and Catherine. Both mountains are in the clouds.

No register found on the Eastern Peak. A short walk got me to the Western peak where I found a register. No snow on the peak, but plenty of frost on the trees and ground.

Looking East from the West peak of Tinkham

Frosty trees at the summit

I took the West ridge down toward the knob between Tinkham, Abiel, and Silver. The top of the trail was steep, and frosty so a fair amount of care was needed. In the clouds I took a wrong turn, and almost ended up on Abiel instead of Silver. I realized my error in time though and corrected my course. Once I was on the correct trail, it didn't take too long to get up Silver. Silver was also frosty, wind blown, and cloudy, so I didn't stay long. No register here either.

Frosted tree on Silver

Ascending into the cloud.

Looking North-East. The car is at the end of the ridge on the right.

From Silver, I decided to head more or less straight for the car. I followed the trail down the North ridge until I got around the cliffs down to the basin. Here I lost the trail, so I headed into the basin. From here I bushwhacked East keeping the North-East ridge on my right. I ran into a faint trail a couple of times only to quickly loose it again. The forest was open though, so the going was easy. I found the PCT about a quarter of a mile from the car. Much to my surprise, there were 13 cars at the trailhead, and the 14th was just pulling up. It's a popular trailhead even in November.

[RichP]

I love that trail from Mirror lake to Tinkham. It's a good, short hike for newbies to a nice summit.

[MangyMarmot]

Yeah, I bet you get some nice views when it's not cloudy.

[joker]

Nice. Was there trail from the lake to the ridge? I recall coming down (reverse of your route up Tinkham) back in probably the late '90s and I don't recall much in the way of trail on that stretch. May have been a trail-ish up on the ridge crest itself. I do recall the signs dotted like fenceposts! My favorite views from up there are when the clouds are shrouding the clearcuts to west and south, and there is clear sky to the east and some views to the north. That whole ridge can be a dividing line between moist and dry air.

[MangyMarmot]

Yes, there was a climber's trail that started at the campsites on the small ridge just South of Mirror Lake. It mostly followed the watershed signs. I lost it above the trees in a rock slope not far from the summit. There is another one on the West side going down toward Silver Peak. There were a lot of names in the summit register. It's a popular peak these days. It's in the new Goldman scrambling book.