If you want a convenient no-frills outpost close to your boat or airplane — and just off the winter trail — Nancy Lake Cabin 3 will fit the bill. What this well-used, old-style public use cabin lacks in amenities or architectural wonder may be compensated by its simplicity and ease of heating on frigid winter nights. Cozy is the word — a warm, dry refuge after a long day outside.

Cozy And Convenient

Because it’s surrounded by private property, the cabin also offers gobs of privacy — no trail walkers will be surprising you. It’s also relatively close to the much larger Cabin 4, a few hundred yards further south on the lakeshore.

Nancy Lake is one of the region’s most popular recreation lakes with a commercial marina, a state park boat launch and campground, and a complex of coves and bays dominated by private homes. The lake offers some fishing, boating of all kinds, and is open to aircraft. While sunny summer weekends can be busy, stretches can be as quiet as a wilderness lake and attract nesting birds and other wildlife, especially in the northeast lobe where boat wake is prohibited, along the western shore where housing is sparse, and at the southern outflow into a vast network of wetlands.

Amenities

A basic 16-by-16 cabin with sleeping space for six. Wood stove, table and cooking space and benches. Outside is a fire ring, outhouse and picnic table.

This cabin is surrounded by private property and must be accessed by boat or winter trail on the frozen lake. There is no overland option! Despite its modest features, the cabin offers terrific access to Nancy Lake.

Lake water must be purified. Firewood gathering will be challenging on this small parcel. If you don’t bring wood, be prepared to gather from state park lands south and north of the adjacent private parcels.

What Can You Do At Nancy Lake Cabin 3?

  • Paddle, motorboat, fish, swim or do other sports on Nancy Lake, right in front of the cabin.
  • Ski, snowshoe or snowmobile on the area’s extensive winter trail system, usually with packed trails only yards from the door.
  • Enjoy a campfire with a view of lake activity.

Getting There

Coordinates
Latitude: 61.68806
Longitude: -150.014917

Summer

Drive to the parking lot at Mile 1.6. Launch is a few hundred yards down a flat, boat-cart friendly trail on Nancy Lake’s “quiet” cove. The cabin’s landing is about one mile south past Cabin 1 and 2. Or travel from elsewhere on the lake. Canoes can be can be rented from Tippecanoe Rentals in Willow: 907-355-6687. Here is a good PDF map of the area.

Winter

Depending on snow conditions and ice cover, you can travel by snow vehicle, skis, snowshoe, dog sled, snow bike or foot from the Mile 1.6 trailhead or elsewhere on the lake over the frozen surface. Check the park conditions report first. Alternative routes could follow extensive snowmobile and ski trails that connect Nancy Lake with the interior of the park.

Break Up / Freeze Up

Nancy Lake Cabin 3 cannot be reached when ice is too thin.

Driving Directions

Photos

Nancy Lake Cabin #3