Echo Mnt, Inspiration Peak, Muir Peak and Mnt. Lowe Loop

[Travis]

On Sunday 3-2-2008 I decided to get out for a quick hike, as I told my family I would be home by 11 am to go to the beach. I got to the end of Lake Ave. trailhead by 6 am and was the first one on the Sam Merrill trail. I made it to Echo Mountain in 45 minutes, another 45 minutes to Inspiration Point via the Castle Canyon trail. The canyon was beautiful and green, much of the chaparral was in bloom and I loved having the trail to myself. Once I made it to Inspiration point I climbed what I thought was Muir Peak (elevation 4668 ft) but later found out that Muir Peak is further down the ridge (elev. 4688 ft). Damnit! I then hiked back to Inspiration Point and on to Inspiration Peak. I was making good time so I continued on to Mount Lowe. I reached the summit 2.5 hours into my hike. From there, I took the west trail down to the Mount Lowe fireroad and on to the Mount Lowe Campground. I decided to take the scenic route down and followed the fire road (old railway) down to the Cape of Good Hope, where I crossed over to Echo Mountain and continued down the Sam Merrill trail to my car. I made it back is just over 4 hours and was back home by 10:30 am. Nice quick hike! 14 miles and 4500 feet elevation gain.

[HikeUp]

Damn you're fast. I've always wondered why there is some confusion between what is Inspiration Point (the peak, not the shelter with site tubes) and what is Muir Peak. Some maps (the one in your post included) indicate Muir Peak as the high point near the top of Castle Canyon (4714') where as others (including the Sierra club)show Muir as high point 4688' near the top of Rubio canyon.

[Travis]

I was going with the peak locations as per the summitpost mountain pages:

http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock ... -peak.html
http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock ... -Peak.html

which describes the peak right next to Inspiration Point as Inspiration Peak and the peak to the southeast at the end of the ridge as Muir Peak.