Since I've already taking the route from Red Box Picnic Area twice, we decided to take the Mountaineer's route this time.  This route is definitely challenging, gaining over 2600′ of elevation in about 3.5 miles, with two sections of class 2-3 rock scrambling. We basically went up making our own route (however, I read after our hike that people have spray-painted arrows to point out the trail on the rocks).  After we summited, we decided to take the loop through Strawberry Meadow to go back.  There were patches of snow near the meadow and we might have seen mountain lion tracks (another hiker we encountered said she saw cubs and an adult mountain lion tracks). As this part of the loop is not very well traveled, and we were racing against the sun going down, we hiked it rather quickly. We think the trail is actually longer what's show on All Trails. All Trails showed the loop to be 10.2 miles, we think it was closer to 12 miles, so be prepared with the 10 essentials. Most of the trail going uphill was exposed so bring plenty of water, food/snacks, layers since it was cold in the meadow area.