Lee and I decided to head to Penner Lake. For a trail description see this trip to Penner Lake. The trailhead is at Carr Lake and can be very crowded. The road in is not paved for the last few miles. I have done this trip with 2 wheel drive, low to the ground vehicles and made it in fine. That is why the trailhead can be crowded. Camping at Carr Lake can be really crowded but once you head down the trail it will feel more like backpacking .Most people going to Carr lake are not in the mood to hike any further than Feely Lake. See map at bottom. Trailhead and lakes are in the Tahoe National Forest. This is of Feely Lake. I didn't get any shots of Carr Lake (too many people milling about).
The trail is pretty easy except for one uphill stretch near Penner Lake. This is Lee on the trail on the south side of Feely Lake.
The trail is really well covered through some sections which makes it great when it is sunny and warm.
There is a pond that someone took the time to name. Here is the sign and ...
Here is the "lake". There are many lakes in this area and I have always joked about naming one after myself, but I have never thought about making a sign.
The trail is almost always on the shore of a lake. Here is Island Lake. There is an island in the middle of it. I have seen people out on it before.
I took this shot to show how clear the water is. It also shows how nice of a day it is. Sunny with a slight breeze is my favorite weather to hike in. I don't mind getting a little warm as long as there is a body of water to jump into when I get there.
So here is Penner Lake. We camped on the South side of the Lake on a ledge that overlooked it. It had a great view, day and night. There are not too many good sites around this lake. I have camped along the North side of the lake before and there seems to be more sites on that side of the lake.
So we set up camp and decided to head down to the water for a swim. This is camp after the swim, I think. There are some nice spots to jump into the lake from this side (south side). Hiking down the loose rocks to the waters edge was not much fun though.
Here is our great view. Just a great day to be out in the wilderness.
Here is a shot from camp when the sun started going down.
Of course the camera makes it look darker than it is but the effect is great.
A shot the next morning when the lake was like glass. That night we saw only 1 mosquito but their cousins (gnats) were plentiful. But I will take a million gnats over a few mosquitoes every time.
The trail on the way out through some of the more covered section.
Here are some panoramics that I took on this trip. The top is Feely Lake and the bottom one is Penner Lake. This is a great trip to introduce someone to backpacking and if you want to have this are to yourself just come midweek.
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