Trip Report
Alpine Scramble - Tinkham Peak
This was a smokey, but enjoyable morning scramble of Tinkham and East Tinkham Peaks via the Mirror Lake TH. All but one participant cancelled due to the air quality.
Christy Cherrier
- Sun, Aug 20, 2023
- Alpine Scramble - Tinkham Peak
- Silver, Tinkham & Abiel Peaks
- Scrambling
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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The route is in great shape and easy to follow. The only water sources still available are Cottonwood and Mirror Lakes.
I chose to start this trip from the Mirror Lake TH instead of Windy Pass to avoid the need for high clearance vehicles. Forest Road 5480 is in good shape and suitable for all vehicles to the lower trailhead. We started around 8:00am and hiked the Mirror Lake Trail and PCT to the turnoff for the Silver/Tinkham saddle. We made it to the saddle in about 1.5 hours. We took a short break to eat and put on our helmets. From there, we followed the obvious boot path up through the trees, up the ridge to Tinkham. There were some loose rocks on the final rock scramble, so we were careful to stay out of each other's fall line in one section. The views weren't great because of the smoke, but we were able to see Silver Peak. We walked the easy ridge over to East Tinkham, descended the boot path down to Mirror Lake, and hiked the Mirror Lake Trail back to our cars. Our total trip time was a little over four hours.