Off Trail from Charlotte Lake to JMT?

[robow8]

It's never too early to plan an adventure, right? So my question is, is there a route/use trail from Charlotte lake North to the JMT so you don't have to backtrack? It looks doable on the map, but I was wondering if anyone had any info/ experience doing it.
Thanks!

[Matthew]

It seems doable on the satellite and topomaps. But the JMT is only about 0.6 miles back along the trail, so the 'shortcut' north would avoid less than a mile distance, but have 800 feet of elevation gain with no trail. I'd just backtrack, or call it if the route looks good from Charlotte.
I learnt something new...Powell (Grand Canyon explorer) and Colin Fletcher suggest tilting your head sideways when looking at a cliffy route, the orientation results in better stereo perspective.

[kpeter]

As I recall from decades ago, there are cut off trails up at the top where it flattens out between Charlotte and Bullfrog that are not shown on the 7.5 topos but appear on some other maps. It makes backtracking somewhat more efficient, saves about 3/10th of a mile off what the 7.5 shows.

[TurboHike]

From the Charlotte Lake ranger station, head north into the obvious drainage. Once you get far enough along the drainage, a use trail appears, becomes well defined, and can be seen clearly using Google Earth. The use trail connects up with the JMT near the small tarns at about 11,150 feet.