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My thanks, too, especially for the camping-spot recommendation. If we do that trip this summer (one of two possibilities) we'll definitely try that campsite!
On which way around to do the loop, doing it clockwise lets you go up Sixty Lakes Col which seems to me to be easier than going down. On where to layover, I'd way Sixty Lakes Basin--less crowded than other parts of the loop. On pictures, I used to a lot but many dozens fell out of their carousel and wound up all mixed up on the floor. I had sequenced them carefully in the carousel so I knew which bit of trail or which lake I was looking at from recalling the trip. I failed to label any. When I picked them up off the floor and tried to re-sort them I gave up because I found that, for the most part, one trail looks like another, ditto lakes. So I tossed them. Nature photography was never my strong suit, anyway.
I'll be doing this route in the middle of August this year with my daughter starting at Kearsarge-> Charlotte -> Gardiner... We have 5/6 days to do this. Looks like a great route and thanks for the input from the prior posts.
I believe one needn´t be timid about hiking lower Charlotte Creek. I went down it with two rookies and they didn´t think it was too dificult at all. I went up and down it on a solo trip. I left roads end a little after 4PM and the next day I was fishing my favorite Gardner Basin lake at 3PM.
Also - I agree that Charlotte Lake is nothing special. I went there with Mike and Jim (6 and11yo) from Onion Valley.