Cooney Lake — Monday, Aug. 31, 2020

Hiked to directly to Cooney Lake from the Foggy Dew Trailhead and stayed one night.  Trailhead is easy to reach, with only a few miles of well-maintained gravel road.  There's a toilet at the trailhead as well.   

Hike to the lake is on the steep side, with a slow, fairly constant ascent.  Trail is extremely dusty at this point. Many of the campsites are also dusty, and the night we stayed it was quite windy, which covered us and our tents with dust.  It was also very cool.  Probably under 40 degrees at night, which, when combined with the strong winds, made it uncomfortable to do anything but retire to our tents early.    

Although it was Saturday, the campsites by the lake were mostly empty.  Only a couple other parties were camping the night we stayed.  There are many campsites there. 

As others have observed, there is a pit toilet available, near the horse camp on the north side of the lake.  I point this out because we found human waste under some large rocks very near some of the campsites on the north end of the lake, which was unpleasant. Please take advantage of the toilet.

On Sunday, we took a day hike to the top of the pass, and then scrambled to the top of Cooney/Switchback Peak (directly over the lake), which is pretty easy to do.  We then scrambled down the ridge, ultimately winding up at Martin Peak.  Views are unmatched all along the ridge, and the scrambling was not difficult - in many cases there is a faded boot trail.  Watch for some cairns as well in the rocky area just south of Martin Peak.  We did a loop by finding our way back down to the lake directly from the saddle south of Martin Peak - it's easy to see where to go.  All in, the day trip was only about 4 miles.  Completely worthwhile on a clear day.

We had planned on staying a second night but decided to hike out early given how uncomfortable the chill wind was during the afternoon.  I went out by completing the lollipop loop, hiking back up to the pass and then down past Merchant Basin and Sunrise lake, which is also very much worth seeing.  That part of the hike is all out in the open (unlike the hike to Cooney, which is mostly under cover until the end.