Mammoth Lakes Loop

We have been staying in Mammoth Lakes, hiking and resting for the last few days. I posted a question about doing a loop from town on the SoCal boards. Dean posted a killer route: Uptown, Beach Cruiser, Off the Top, Skidmark to Paper Route to Lake Trails, cross the pavement and ride Panorama and Mammoth Rocks Trail back to town.

Estimated to be 30ish miles with about 6,000 feet of climbing based on some GPX files that I downloaded.

I left at 630am to beat the gondola rush.



The route is all singletrack, very few technical sections, and only about a handfull of snow patches that you can easily navigate.



Plenty of great views as you near the top, like this one near the first summit on Off the Top


The switchbacks got pretty steep at the end.

Brief side note: Brian Blair, Steph, Kendall and I watched fireworks out near Crowley Lake last night. Both were invited on the ride today, but Steph is still a little sick. Toward the end of the evening, Brian mentioned the Vapor Tral 125 in September. Seems like we are both doing it, along with Lee.

I mention that only to say how good it was to see them and how this ride seemed like a good "training" ride for the VT. The peak tops out at 11k.

Some singletrack about 200 feet from the summit.



I managed to make it just as the "gondola shuttlers" started coming down the mountain. I snapped a few pictures before starting the super fast descent.

I rested at the panorama of the lakes for a few pictures.



Panorama and Mammoth Rocks Trails were the best of the entire route, well-built trails with some amazing views. After summiting, I only saw a few hikers on the trail. In fact, besides a few bikers exiting the gondola a little past 9pm, I saw very few people out on the trails.




Mammoth Rocks (aptly named) had a few technical sections in it, but otherwise the entire route was all smooth singletrack.






Managed to make it back to town and find a few bike paths back to avoid the traffic. A great day on the bike riding in the pines, some 5.5 hours in the saddle, 30+ miles and about 6,000 feet of climbing.