RT Length: 9.69 miles
Elevation Gain: 3208’
I arrived at the Fancy Lake trailhead and was on the trail at 6:30am. The drive in was on a 2WD dirt road, easily accessible except for the last 2 miles, which had a couple of inches of snow still on the ground. Luckily, enough vehicles had driven through the snow and there were bare spots to still keep this a 2WD road. The beginning of the trail is obvious. The trailhead has clean bathrooms and plenty of parking.
I followed Fancy Lake Trail 2006 for 3.3 miles northwest to Fancy Lake. This is a class 1 trail and easy to follow. There was a nice footbridge at the crossing over Fancy Creek.
I sat and admired Fancy Lake for a bit, as it was a beautiful day
From the lake I turned and headed east, to continue following the trail to Fancy Pass.
It was a total of 4.25 miles from the trailhead to Fancy Pass. At the pass, I dipped down to avoid the class 3 section, then gained the ridge as quickly as I could.
The downclimb to avoid the class 3 section was easy, class 2 (there might even be a trail here in summer)
Ascending the ridge was quite steep on tundra
While ascending to the ridge, I did my best to avoid the rock outcroppings
Here you can see the first false summit. I aimed for the ridge to gain this point.
From this point on, it was a ridge hike north. A long, class 2 ridge hike.
Here are some pictures of the ridge
At the base of the summit, I went right to avoid the snow
Then easily gained the peak
I summited Fancy Peak at 10:45am
Fancy Peak:
Here’s a look back down the ridge
This was an out and back hike for me, so I retraced my steps back to the ridge
Then followed the ridge south
This was my descent route back to Fancy Pass
Back at Fancy Pass, I followed the trail east back to Fancy Lake
Then I followed the trail southeast back to the trailhead
I made it back to the trailhead at 1pm, making this a 9.69 mile hike with 3208’ of elevation gain in 6 hours, 30 minutes.
On to the next trailhead!
Wild Wanderer 