High Sierra Topix

Just did that trip a couple of weeks ago. Did the trip in 3 days. However we came out over glacier pass. pretty easy class 2/3 but the 500 feet or so of snow was a pain in the late afternoon. Theres a pretty well marked trail up from soda spring lake to glacier pass. From glacier pass we continued XC south west from the pass down to monarch creek where you can pick up an unmaintained trail back to mineral king.
Mosquitos were quite bad in the big arroyo and little five lakes.
I did the same route a few years ago but came out over sawtooth pass. The lost canyon is worth seeing especially at sunrise.

I've posted before (try searching) with vertical up and down numbers and mileage how and in and out over Sawtooth Pass to reach the Big Five and Little Five Lakes zone versus a loop over Timber Gap saves considerable effort IF the goal is simply to reach those destinations. Otherwise if one is simply intent to see a lot on the journey while lugging a pack, covering a lot of ground only on trails during most of daylight hours, then your itinerary has value.

Glacier Pass is the way to go. Here's Mike, age 9 with it in the background. It's a lot easier than it looks.