One of my favorite hiking destinations is the area just north of Grouse Ridge that includes Carr and Feeley Lakes, Island Lake, Milk Lake, Round Lake, and Penner Lake. I've been to Island Lake within the past 5 years, but it's been a decade since I hiked in to Penner.
Chris and Pam might remember the time when they were about 10 and 8 respectively, and we took our family to camp at Carr Lake in the big camper we had. I left Mom with the three younger kids and I took Chris and Pam up to Penner Lake, then down to Shotgun Lake, and up to pick up the Grouse Ridge Trail leading back to our campsite. It was only about 4.5 miles total, but when we started to climb up from Shotgun, there was so much snow still on the ground that it completely covered the trail for miles. I was plenty familiar with the area, and knew how to find our way back, so no problem there. But Chris and Pam must have thought I was a crazy man for making them walk over all that snow with no apparent trail to follow.
Penner Lake is a beautiful spot, with great fishing, clear, relatively warm water, and nice 10-15 foot cliff to dive off. One of the YM leaders in our stake (Joe Harrison) invited me along with his boys and we hiked to Penner this last Saturday, about 6 miles round trip, going from 6,000 to 7,000 feet elevation. It was great day! I really haven't gotten to do much hiking the past few years, and it was like being let out of a cage. Even though there were tons of other hikers (okay, maybe 50 total), I had a great time. Below are some photos.
On the way in.
It was quite smoky/hazy because of some wild fires down in the Oroville area.
Cliff diving
In panoramic view, this shot is just to the right of the one above.
The two shots above are actually only about 1/4 of the lake. Around the corner to the left is the rest.
On the way out
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