I did that loop two years ago in September. I started and ended at the climbers’ parking lot. Checked out three climbers’ herd paths on the way to Lafayette Place. (I didn’t go all the way to the base of the cliff, though. The first two, I just went to ‘‘treeline’’, where the views opened up; the last not even that far — just to a blowdown, then I figured I’d wasted enough time and went back to the bike path to continue south.) From Lafayette Place, I went up to Lonesome Lake, then took the Dodge Cutoff back to the Hi-Cannon Trail (yep, for red-lining purposes). So that was a little farther than necessary to merely complete the loop.
Overall, the complete loop took just over nine hours, but it could have been a lot shorter without all the extraneous exploring.
When I got back to my car, I noticed a trail on the other side of the stream and followed it back up around Profile Lake. So that stretched out the hike another hour or so. Rather than take the actual trail back this time (there’s a tunnel under the highway near the Old Man parking lot), I just stayed on the grass/shoulder of the road to return to my car. Otherwise, the trail would cross to the northbound side of the highway and then you’d have to cross back to the southbound side. I guess there must have been a second tunnel, but I don’t remember it.
