From the junction with Highway 93/95 at Fort Steele (Esso gas station), drive eastward on Wardner Fort Steele Road for 3.1 kilometres and turn left onto gravel Maygard Road.  Drive 1.0 kilometre and turn right onto Maus Creek Road.  Drive 1.9 kilometres and keep straight (left) at a Y-junction.  Drive 1.4 kilometres and keep left at another split.  Drive 450 metres and ignore a double-track merging from the right.  Drive 3.3 kilometres to where an exploration road branches off to the right.  Park here, or drive up the exploration road as far as comfort allows.  In dry conditions, the drive to the start of the exploration road should be suitable for 2WD vehicles, but high clearance is still recommended beyond the first Y-junction.

While I likely could have continued driving quite far up the exploration road, Leslie, Zosia and I were just as happy to walk given the shortness of this trip.  The exploration road climbs at a gentle but steady rate and makes several long, sweeping switchbacks up the north side of Lone Peak.  Other than swatting aside the occasional encroaching tree branch, we had no difficulties ascending the road.  The road ultimately crests the northeast ridge of Lone Peak at a clearing about 100 metres below the summit.  Instead of following the reclaimed road which begins to descend beyond the clearing, we turned up a somewhat overgrown trail and climbed the remaining distance to the top.  The precise location of the actual summit is a bit ambiguous since the top of Lone Peak is mostly covered by trees and some rather heinous deadfall.  We thrashed around as best as we could in hopes of finding some sort of obvious summit marker, but in the end, I basically eyeballed a few candidate spots--all viewless--and recorded waypoints for later analysis.  Once we had our fill of bushwhacking, we backtracked for a short distance to a half-decent viewpoint we had passed earlier and stopped for a break.

For our return trip, Leslie, Zosia and I simply retraced our steps down the trail and the exploration road without any drama.

I want to give a big thank you to Leslie and her boyfriend, Eric Boiral, for generously hosting Zosia and me over the long weekend at their beautiful farm located on the outskirts of Cranbrook.  Be sure to check out their website, We Be Farmin' BC.

	Leslie and Zosia hike up the access road for Lone Peak.
	A rabbit freezes at the sound of approaching humans. Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak
	A female spruce grouse tries to divert attention away from its chicks (not visible here).
	Leslie and Zosia pause at a rare viewpoint along the access road.  In the distance is Lakit Mountain.
	Vegetation begins to encroach upon the road higher up the mountain.
	The access road ends at this clearing, but a trail continues out of view to the right.  Visible through the trees at left is Mount Fisher.
	Zosia and Leslie seemingly disappear into the bush as they climb the steep trail leading to the top.
	Sonny thrashes through deadfall to verify the whereabouts of Lone Peak's true summit. Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak
	Zosia, Leslie and Sonny pose together at a viewpoint not far from the true summit of Lone Peak (1813 metres).
	Total Distance:  10.0 kilometres Round-Trip Time:  4 hours 18 minutes Net Elevation Gain:  722 metres GPX Data