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Aug 18, 2020 — I did this route mostly for the beginner-level Class 3 scramble up to Father Dyer Peak, but the loop as a whole was quite nice, and the vast open spaces and overall good trail system made me happy. The road for the Crystal Lakes Trail quickly becomes very poor, so I recommend just starting before the road deteriorates. At the first road junction after starting out, I kept right and ascended an absolutely awful road that I can't imagine any non-ATV being able to handle. The road continued all the way to the east side of Lower Crytal Lake. From here, the road headed left and ended shortly after. A minor talus-filled slope appears, and some Class 2 route-finding wrapped me round to the left of the otherwise dangerous-looking cliffs. After a few hundred feet, I was on the east ridge, the fun scramble up to Father Dyer Peak. There's not much to say about the route, except that it's easy Class 3 the whole way up. There were at least two spots where leaving the ridge and keeping just right of its rocky crest to keep the route easier is recommended. Once at the top of the scramble, Class 2 talus leads to Father Dyer Peak's minor summit, and then more Class 2 works along the ridge to Crystal Peak. The talus continues down to the saddle of Crystal Peak and Peak 10, where some grassy sections make the ascent to Peak 10 less tedious.
Peak 10 had some nice views of Crystal Lake and the peaks to the north. I noted the mellow Class 2 east ridge leading to a dirt road that would take me safely to grassy tundra, but instead started down an awful, loose social trail on Peak 10's north ridge. I recommend just taking the route I mapped out on the attached map - it would probably be a lot less annoying. Once at the base of Peak 10, a mostly grassy slope led to the summit of Peak 9. I continued off Peak 9 via its east ridge on mellow terrain until I got to a dirt road. I took this north until I located the Wheeler National Recreation Trail, which I followed through very pretty brush and tundra. The trail led me down to the approach road I took to get to Crystal Lake earlier
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